Body Lift or Thigh Lift for Stretch Marks on Calves, Hips, and Thighs?

If you have stretch marks on your hips and thighs, a lower body lift will offer you the best procedure by removing the excess, damaged skin.  A thigh lift only removes thigh skin.  Fraxel will probably make no or minimal change.

Your history suggests that you would be a candidate for a lower body lift. This procedure removes excess skin in the lower back, flanks and abdomen. It also tightens muscles and improves contour. Stretch marks are removed in the area of the skin resection. Unfortunately, this won't help you with your calf and thigh stretch marks.It's possible that stretching of the skin during this procedure will result in less noticeable stretch marks. The procedure also relocates residual stretch marks to a higher level where they may be less noticeable. Unfortunately, at this time there's no good way to manage stretch marks, short of removal.

Body lift will removed the stretch marks
from the abdomen, waist and back. Stretch
marks located in other areas have to be evaluated to have a direct excision or
other dermatological treatments including fractional lasers.

BODY LIFT OR THIGH LIFT FOR STRETCH MARKS ON CALVES, HIPS, AND THIGHS


Dear Mary:

  I understand your concern regarding stretch marks of your hips and calves.  It is possible to remove stretch marks with a body lift and/or a thigh lift.  This depends on where the stretch marks are and if the proposed skin excision encompasses the stretch marks that want to be removed. 

If the stretch marks are on the upper outer portion of the hip, typically in the saddle bag region, this usually can be removed with a circumferential or 360-body lift.  If the stretch marks are further down on your hips around the knee area on the outside portion, this may not be able to be removed with a body lift.  Alternatively, if you have scars on your inner thighs, these can be removed with a medial or inner thigh lift. 

Typically, the incision for an inner thigh lift goes from the groin to the inner knee and removed an ellipse or extended football shaped amount of skin and fat from the inner thigh.  If the stretch marks are on the inner leg, therefore a thigh lift may be a good solution.

If you have stretch marks on your calves, these can be eliminated with a calf reduction.  Typically, when I do calf reductions, an incision is made from the medial or inner knee down to the inner ankle.  This removes excess skin and fat from the inner calf region and eliminates stretch marks in those areas.

Thank you,


_________________________
J. Timothy Katzen, MD, FACS

Stretch marks are particularly troublesome to many of my patients who are new moms. Depending on the severity of the stretch marks and their locations, sometimes a surgical procedure to remove the damaged skin (i.e abdominoplasty or lower body lift) is a more effective choice. For my patients who have scars that are not amenable to surgical removal, I have had very good success with a combination laser treatment with the Pixel Fractionated Erbium Laser and Skin Tightening Laser. Cellulite can also be addressed with non-surgical Accent RFA laser treatments.