How safe are body contouring surgeries for removal of excess skin after weight loss?

Congratulations on your weight loss! That is in inspirational accomplishment.
Safety is critical in body contouring surgery. The most common complications following abdominoplasty and lower body lift procedures include: delayed healing, incision separation, and seroma (wound fluid collections under the skin). For patients who achieved their weight loss through diet and exercise, these complications tend to be milder in severity. For patients who achieved weight loss through weight loss surgery (especially gastric bypass) these complications can be more significant. Especially if their nutritional status is not optimized before surgery.
The number of procedures performed in one operation depends on how extensive each individual component of the operation is, the time necessary to safely complete each technique and the health of the patient. I need more details to give you a precise answer.
Hope this helps and good luck on your journey!

Hi sim012345,
You bring up a great point. There are competing factors in the massive weight loss population, who typically have many distinct body areas which would benefit from surgery.
The 2 competing factors are patient convenience and patient safety.
Especially in weight loss patients, who would benefit from many different areas being treated, patients often come in with a goal of having everything treated simultaneously. This is certainly ideal to have a single operation with one period of recovery, in order to achieve your desired results.
From the surgeon's perspective, there are potential downsides to combining multiple operations. Specifically, there is a known straight line relationship between time spent in the operating room and risk for complications. This does not mean that you cannot combine procedures (surgeons combine procedures all the time), but it does mean that you and your surgeon should have a specific conversation about how much is too much.
Ultimately, you and your surgeon should be on the same page about goals, as well as risk tolerance, and should make a educated, thoughtful decision together about the trade-offs of number of surgical procedures performed at any one sitting.
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,Christopher Pannucci MDBoard Certified Plastic SurgeonPlastic Surgery NorthwestSpokane, Washington