Age 54, no childbirth, 11 months post Renuvion - what can I do for wrinkled skin? (Photo)

This is a very challenging problem to fix. You likely needed a tummy tuck and now the liposuction/energy from the VASER has creased scarring of the skin/remaining fat to the underying muscle fascia. I would highly recommend against any further VASER as this may further create more skin problems. I would recommend seeing an expert in revisionary procedures as this is an incredibly challenging problem to fix.

You were probably never a good candidate for liposuction without a tummy tuck from the beginning. The fact that you had more liposuction in less than a year for 'irregularities' tells me that you had a non-plastic surgeon perform it or you had an incompetent one. Your Renuvion only made matters worse; it not only couldn't tighten your relative skin excess, it further exacerbated the problem. Your abdominal skin and (what's left of your) fat is now glued into this contour with thick and unyielding scar tissue. Your only hope for a smoother result is some form of abdominoplasty, either a traditional, a reverse, or both (perhaps the safest option).

Thank you for your question and photo. This is a very poor liposuction result. It is NOT the VASER, it's operator error. It is not the tool, but the inappropriate use of a powerful technology. Renuvion is not the tool to correct this poor liposuction and fibrotic result. If one uses Renuvion (again, one has to understand the technology and its appropriate use), the area needs to be widely undermined and released before one can produce skin retraction. Another Renuvion treatment is not the procedure of choice to improve your results. you will need a full abdominoplasty (I would not recommend a reverse tummy tuck) by a board certified plastic surgeon experienced in advanced body sculpting techniques and experience with secondary procedures. Good luck.
See the attached reference, how VASER liposuction looks like in trained and experienced hands.

Dear sebrina55,
I understand your concern. However, without a proper assessment, it would be difficult to determine what went wrong. It is best that you visit your plastic surgeon for further assessment or ask for a second opinion. Only after a thorough examination, you can get proper recommendations and advice.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Dear Sebrina,

Unfortunately, your situation demonstrates what can happen when too much liposuction is performed in trying to push the envelope in someone who has lost some skin elasticity, i.e. age 54. Contour irregularities are the most common complication of liposuction, especially aggressive liposuction. I would recommend letting the healing process continue and continue your gym routine. The irregularities are scar tissue and scar tissue remodels over time. You might consider ultrasound treatments to help break up the scar tissue. They are usually performed by a physical therapist. Good luck!

The posted photo says it all! The Renuvion or J-Plasma is a poor tool/technology. You are not the first to have this complication from this technique... Do not redo it! You have grade IV fibrosis from the heat effect of the Renuvion. Only surgery can offer improvement. I would offer regular "skin only " TT to attempt to smooth out the wrinkled skin. Fee $10,000. Please call the parent company to file a compliant and also the FDA. Best to virtual consult with...

Delivering consistent quality liposuction results is more difficult than most people believe.
Liposuction has more variation in outcomes based purely on who does the procedure than any other plastic surgery operation.
There are plenty of board-certified plastic surgeons with overall good reputation, good intentions and years of experience who simply can’t do liposuction well.
The procedure is by some individuals perceived as being very simplistic with a very low learning curve.
In reality quality Liposuction is one of the harder procedures to learn and the number of plastic surgeons who can deliver consistent quality results including making accurate assessments and predict outcomes correctly is relatively small.
Liposuction results are permanent and irreversible.
For this reason I recommend patients be extremely selective about providers before having this procedure.
I basically recommend anybody interested in liposuction to have a minimum of five in person consultations
During each consultation ask each provider to open up their portfolio and show you their entire collection of before and after pictures of previous liposuction results.
Ask them to show you examples of quality outcomes, average outcomes and outcomes that did not turn out as well as they had hoped for.
For reference and experience provider should have no difficulty showing you at least 50 set a before and after pictures of commonly performed procedures like abdominal liposuction.
Being shown a handful of preselected sample pictures which most likely represent the best results of the providers career is insufficient to to get a good understanding of what average results look like or how many of these procedures they have performed.
It appears that they attempted to do high definition liposuction or etching with an energy device a.k.a. VASER.
I’m not a big fan of high definition liposuction because it ends up looking very unnatural. I think you would agree. The horizontal lines do not look like muscle definition but rather more like disfigurement from badly done liposuction.
Having had more treatments done has simply created less fat to work with and more scar tissue.
Choosing a procedure should be done based on what the underlying primary ideology is. in other words the first step is to make an accurate diagnosis. In your case your current primary problem is that most of your subcutaneous fat has been eliminated. At the same time you’ve had multiple energy-based devices that have created large amounts of scar tissue and on top of this your fat distribution was purposely made highly uneven(hi definition Liposuction A.k.a. etching).
The typical indications for a tummy tuck it’s a domino wall skin laxity and muscle separation from previous pregnancies.
That is not what you have.
Scar tissue from your previous procedures will significantly hamper how much skin can be removed and your skin will most likely not drape your abdomen naturally if put under tension during a tummy tuck weather reverse or traditional.It may be useful to some degree but it’s an awful lot of surgery to go through for something that is not inherently treating what your problem is and nobody is going to have any significant number of before and after pictures to show you what the results will look like in fact you’ll probably not be able to find a plastic surgeon who is done a tummy tuck for your indication.
Liposuction results are permanent and more or less irreversible.
In your case you went on to have several more procedures that overall I’m guessing just made things worse.
None of your providers really understood what they were doing nor had the capacity to deliver good results.
I often like to review the process of finding the right plastic surgeon especially for liposuction procedures. You can read some of my other post if you would like but in this case further Liposuction is unlikely to help and in fact there is probably no operation to improve your outcome.
Sometimes very minor improvements can be had and getting anything more than that often requires multiple procedures.
To get an accurate assessment will for sure require an in person consultation.
If you approach plastic surgeons for a second opinion consultations you need to come prepared bringing with you all before and after pictures for each of the procedures you had as well as a copy of the opera report per each of every procedure you’ve had on your abdomen.
When making an assessment for the outcome of a procedure we always have to see before and after pictures.If you’ve had more than one operation then we need to see before and after pictures for each of the procedures you’ve had.
There are plenty of board-certified plastic surgeons with good intention, good reputations and years of experience who simply don’t know how to do liposuction well.
Mastering this procedure is much more difficult than most people believe.
Unfortunately a significant number of plastic surgeons view liposuction as the most basic and simple operations and believe it has virtually no learning curve.
With that type of attitude results will never improve and surgeons will continue to deliver results that look like yours. I would call that disfiguring.
I would encourage you to write honest and professional reviews about your experience to warn other people about what happened to you and what your outcome turned out like. I’m sure you would’ve appreciated hearing other people who’ve gone through similar experience talking about their outcomes and experience before choosing the provider you did.
Personally I recommend patients have a minimum of five in person consultations before considering having liposuction and consider rescheduling many more if there is any doubt in regards to skill and experience of each provider.
VASER is certainly not a better device than any other form of Liposuction. And can remove more fat in last time which is primarily an advantage to the surgeon not the patient. In the hands of a provider lacking sufficient skill and experience it is a bit like giving a race car to a student driver. My first hand experience with Renuvion showed no skin tightening or improvements whatsoever. are used the device for one year an absence sold it because it added nothing to the Liposuction outcome of my patients. This was based on objective and subjective data including having honest discussion with each of my patients who have the treatment. not a single patient found or felt that their skin had tightened. When making measurements there was zero skin contraction seen in any of the patients treated using Renuvion.
I am since sold the device.
VASER is a device can make Liposuction a little more efficient for the surgeon but really serves very little advantage for the patient.
Why the device can remove fat aggressively that can also lead to more severe disfiguring.Had your initial procedure been done in a more cautious and conservative manner than there may have been enough fat left behind to actually make some improvements and convert this to a quality outcome.
Because of the aggressive nature especially using VASER together with your follow up appointments there is virtually nothing left to work with.
Some of the statements I’ve made are a collection of my experiences and these are all based on assumptions. To get an accurate assessment always requires an in person consultation with access to before and after pictures and a physical examination.
It may be possible to achieve some slight minor improvements but restoring you to an appearance of not having had liposuction will never be possible.
Anybody who claims to have some magical device (Energy devices like Renuvion, bodytite , VASER, laser etc.) that can help your situation should be an immediate red flag.
I’m sorry this happened to you. I wish you would have read some of my recommendations for patients before having liposuction and how to that plastic surgeon and minimize having a negative experience.
I did not review those in detail in this response sense you’ve already had the procedure and correct thing this is not possible in any significant meaningful way.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom MD