Left with Dent and Bulge After Inner Thigh Lipo

The medial thigh is a unique
anatomic area that’s especially prone to contour irregularity deformities
following liposuction.For this reason,
it’s important for plastic surgeons to be conservative when performing
liposuction in this area. It’s
also important for patients to have realistic expectations about what this
operation can accomplish.Unfortunately,
it’s hard to visualize the defect that you note with the currently-available
photographs, and therefore a physical examination would be extremely helpful.This exam could help determine what
therapeutic options are available to address your concerns. In
some cases, the best solution might be to accept the current result.Efforts to improve this situation might make
the problem even worse.In other cases,
additional liposuction and fat grafting may be options as well. In
some cases, it may be helpful to obtain a second opinion from an experienced
liposuction surgeon.This surgeon could
re-evaluate your situation and make an objective recommendation regarding your
current situation.Hopefully, with the
passage of time and appropriate medical and surgical management, you will
ultimately be happy with your surgical result.

Many post-liposuction contour problems can be improved, some significantly some others only moderately.  It requires precise planning and expert technique.   Only after a proper physical examination can it be determined if you are a good candidate for revision surgery.  Most likely your condition can be improved with careful micro-liposuction of residual bulges and judicious micro-grafting of the depressed area.

Regarding loose inner thigh skin and surface contour irregularities, your picture, to me, looks like a very good result overall relative to some others I've seen.  Perfection is rarely, if ever achieved, by any plastic surgical procedure.

Skin of the inner thigh is not quite as elastic as some other areas.  When underlying fat is removed, the skin may not shrink down as much as other areas, and may ripple or sag a little.  The amount of apparent skin excess depends on innate skin elasticity, your age, and the amount of fat removed.  The skin of this area is normally very mobile, and perhaps less tightly applied to underlying connective tissue layers.  Another factor that may cause surface irregularity in this area is unrelieved localized compression by a tight elastic garment or bandage after liposuction.

If the "dent" is related to adherence that developed from localized compression by a post-liposuction garment, more lipo, especially ultrasonic lipo or lipo with lysis of this area of adhesion, may help.  If the dent is related to extra sagging skin with poor elasticity, and small thigh lift procedure is more likely to tighten the area than more liposuction.  The thigh lift, however, will result in scar(s) that may be less desirable than the loose skin and/or surface irregularities that you now have.

Hope this helps, Steve Laverson, MD

the inner thigh is a higher risk zone for irregularities of contour after liposuction. Additional liposuction is not guaranteed to make things better for you and could, possibly, make things worse. The photograph is not as good as an examination to see the contour defect, but it is possible that a series of fat injections could fill the depression and improve the area, but this has its risks too.

The photo you provided shows a very subtle contour assymetry between your thighs- obviously an exam would reveal the problems that you describe. There are a couple of remedies for liposuction contour issues-

1. Live with the result- correcting the problem requires another procedure

2. Selective liposuction to match the adjacent contours

3. Fat grafting to the region to replace volume

Inner thighs are notorious for skin laxity and contour problems after liposuction. You might consider leaving well enough alone- based on your photo, you look pretty good.

sorry to hear of your predicament. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to your problem. the inner thigh skin is very loosely attached to the underlying muscles and liposuction in this area is prone to result in hanging skin and contour irregularities.

Although I do see the area you are bothered by the overriding question is just how likely is another procedure to completely correct it? Unfortunately, this is not a certainty. Adding fat to fill the depression does not always work and may suffer absorption while selective liposuction may worsen the result in some people.