What are the techniques involved in body contouring surgery? What do they consist of?
Body contouring surgery is that part of plastic and cosmetic surgery that includes all the techniques aimed at correcting flaccidity of the trunk and limbs. The most important techniques are abdominoplasty, abdominoflancoplasty and thigh lifting or cruroplasty and arm lifting or brachioplasty. These techniques are aimed at correcting and eliminating excess skin or skin flaccidity, which is produced mainly by weight loss and also by the aging process itself.
What type of patients is it recommended for?
Body contouring surgery is applied in patients who present flaccidity. This flaccidity occurs naturally with the passage of time or aging but, above all, after significant weight loss. As for abdominoplasty, which would be surgery of the abdomen, is perhaps the most common and will be performed very commonly in women, because due to pregnancy, the abdomen suffers some sequelae consisting of excess skin and muscle distension. Abdominoplasty involves removing excess skin, repair or tighten the muscles of the abdomen that are yielding and, optionally, correct excess fat moderate, never overweight, by liposuction.
What kind of preparation is done prior to the procedure?
The only requirement for the selection of patients or candidates for body contouring surgery techniques is that they must not be overweight. Overweight would contraindicate this type of intervention and to perform any type of stretching of the thighs or arms or trunk surgery, abdominoplasty or abdominoflancoplasty we must have a patient at a normal weight. If you are overweight, you must previously lose weight through diet, or in cases of obesity through bariatric surgery techniques because it is necessary that the layer of fat or adipose tissue have a very reduced thickness to adequately perform the removal of excess skin.
What does the postoperative period consist of and is it painful?
The interventions of body contouring surgeries are medium or large interventions. We are talking about interventions that can last three, four or five hours and, sometimes, combined interventions are performed. Nevertheless, with advanced techniques and careful patient management, the postoperative period is relatively simple. They are not surgeries that cause pain, just some discomfort that is endured with painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs, especially the first week, and recovery occurs between the first and second week, which is when the stitches are removed. The patient gets out of bed and walks from the next day. It is not necessary to rest, it is not convenient, and the postoperative period we can say that it is bearable, it is not a complicated postoperative period.