Why do plastic surgeons say back rolls are hard to eliminate?

Whenever choosing a surgical procedure, patients and surgeons need to have a clear understanding of what the underlying problem is. Skinfold is skin laxity that due to connective tissue in certain areas causes the skin laxity to create a fold. Skin laxity is best treated by direct skin excision like loose skin on the abdomen should be treated with a tummy tuck. People are reluctant to having skin surgery on their back because the scars can be unforgiving. Fat can be removed from the back very effectively, consistently, and with excellent results. back liposuction is a high patient satisfaction, high quality procedure. It can reduce the size of the skin folds, but it doesn’t eliminate them because skin folds are due to skin laxity not excessive amounts of subcutaneous fat.
There’s nothing difficult about treatment of the back. Fairly good improvements can be had even on individuals with moderate skin laxity, but they should not expect skin folds to go away unless they have a skin excision procedure.
It’s very important to have a clear understanding of what the underlying problem is both in regards to choosing the correct procedure, and also understanding inherit limitations to what age procedure can accomplish. People with skin laxity should not expect Liposuction to address the skin laxity issues.
I typically view the torso as a single anatomic unit, and generally treat the entire torso when doing any type of abdominal liposuction. There are exceptions, but generally speaking, my preference is to treat the entire torso. A full torso includes upper abdomen, lower, abdomen, love handles, waist, entire back and under arm areas all the way to the side of the breast. I treat the entire back on almost every single case where I do abdominal liposuction. By treating the torso as a single anatomic unit patients are left with an even consistent natural, thin fat, distribution without transition zones between treated and I treated areas anywhere along the torso.
So far in my career, I have done over 8000 and liposuction procedures. The great majority of those have been female abdomens including the back. The back is an excellent area to treat with Liposuction but I am also very clear about explaining what the procedure can, and cannot accomplish from liposuction to each patients during my consultations. I have thousands of before and after pictures and can show accurately Based on previous patients who had similar body characteristics so patients have a very good understanding of what results will look like before they schedule surgery.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom, MD