Helping You Regain Your Slim Appearance
After significant weight loss, you may have excess skin resulting in saggy looking upper arms. An arm lift will help you regain a more youthful appearance, and restore confidence in how you look.
Often, an arm lift is used in conjunction with other body contouring surgeries including breast and abdominal surgery to create a complete transformation of the body contour. During your office consultation, Dr. Jugenburg can review the different procedures that are available to you in addition to an arm lift.
Are You A Candidate for Brachioplasty?
If you have lost a significant amount of weight and you’re left with SIGNIFICANT sagging upper arms that are impacting your appearance and hurting your self confidence, you’re probably a good candidate for the this type of surgery.
Most people have some loose skin on their arms, but Dr. Jugenburg would not recommend an armlift if he believes the surgery and the resultant scar is not worth the small improvement in patients who do not have a lot of loose skin.
The best way to determine if an arm lift is right for you is to discuss the reasons that you want the procedure with Dr. Jugenburg during your consultation.
The surgery will be performed in our facility, and will take about two hours. Dr. Jugenburg will determine the best place to make the incision. There are basically two types of arm lift procedures; the traditional arm lift, and the extended arm lift.
In the traditional arm lift, the incision is made on the underside of the arm. This gives the doctor access to removing larger areas of loose skin.
In the extended arm lift, the incision is extended along the arm down to the body, in order to remove loose skin and fatty tissue along the chest wall area. This is a common problem with patients who have lost large amounts of weight.
In both procedures, there are many different types of arm lifts that depend on your specific circumstances, and Dr. Jugenburg will discuss the various options with you.
The procedure is performed under general anesthesia. Dr. Jugenburg will make the incision either on the inside of the arm or on the back of the arm, depending on your specific amount and location of excess skin. This incision will generally extend from the armpit area to just above the elbow. The excess fat in the arms may be removed, or in some cases, treated using liposuction.
The underlying supportive tissue is tightened and reshaped using internal sutures. Once the incision is made, excess skin is tightened and trimmed, and the remaining skin is sutured in place using sutures that will be absorbed by the body. Multiple sutures are placed in order to provide a pleasing contour to the arm.
After the procedure, patients will have swelling and bruising. The discomfort from the procedure will be managed by pain medication prescribed by Dr. Jugenburg. In some cases, the doctor will place drainage tubes at the incision area in order to help drain any excess fluids during the first several days after surgery. Compression bandages are often worn to help promote healing.
Perhaps the most disconcerting part of the procedure is scarring. Because the upper arm skin is thin, scars tend to be more noticeable than on other parts of the body. However, your scars will be hidden when your arms are at your sides, but there is simply no way to remove all that excess skin without leaving a scar. Dr. Jugenburg will do all he can to minimize the scarring. Placing the incision on the inside of the arm, for example, will help to make the scars less conspicuous.
Your recovery will be relatively quick. You’ll have pain medication prescribed to help with the post-operative discomfort. While recovery time varies from patient to patient, most people return to work within a week, and resume all their activities within one month. Of course, if you combine brachioplasty with other post weight loss procedures, your recovery time will increase.
Dr. Jugenburg will see you the day after your surgery and at specified intervals during the weeks that follow. This is so Dr. Jugenburg can personally monitor your recovery, and to ensure that you have the best results possible.
Additional Post Weight Loss Procedures
The most common reason for arm lift surgery is extensive weight loss. And while the surgery will remove the droopy, sagging skin on your arms, it won’t help other areas of your body like sagging breasts or excessive skin around the stomach area. That’s why many of our patients combine brachioplasty with breast and/or abdominal procedures that provide a full transformation of your body.
Breast Surgery
When women lose excessive amounts of weight, the breasts are affected by a loss of volume and sagging. There are different options available for helping to restore a more youthful, healthy appearance.
For women who experience small to moderate deflation and sagging, a breast lift may be all that is needed. Women with very large breasts may still require breast reduction even after significant weight loss. And if you find your breasts appear sagging or appearing “empty,” you may want to consider breast augmentation or augmentation with a breast lift.
Dr. Jugenburg will talk with you and listen to your concerns and discuss your goals in order to make a recommendation about the best additional options for you after weight loss.
Midsection and Torso
Not surprisingly, after excessive weight loss the most excess skin is found around your midsection. That’s where the amount of excess and loose skin is most visible. Almost everyone who loses large amounts of weight requires some revision in this area.
Dr. Jugenburg can discuss various options that are available to you to address this part of your body. By helping you understand the terminology, you’ll have a better understanding of what is available to you.
Here are some terms to become familiar with:
- Abdominoplasty: There are two types of abdominoplasty; abdominoplasty and extended abdominoplasty. Abdominoplasty is used to revise the lower abdominal area, moving up to the belly button area. The extended abdominoplasty goes around to the sides of the torso.
- Paniculectomy: This procedure is done to remove excess skin and fat on the lower front of the abdomen. This is a simple ‘amputation' of the skin and is not a cosmetic procedure. The goal is address health concerns due to an excessively large abdominal skin flap. To create a cosmetically appropriate appearance, tighten the abdominal muscles, and liposuction additional fat, abdominoplasty would be required.
- Lower body lift: This is an extensive procedure that is designed to reshape the entire torso. In addition to helping reshape the midsection, it also has a lifting effect on the buttocks and outer thighs.
