Armlift Surgery (Brachioplasty)
Brachioplasty After Weight Loss
This is a patient of mine who lost a lot of weight with a bariatric procedure (surgery for weight loss). Her chief complaint was the condition of her arms after losing almost 100 pounds. She is seen here after a bilateral brachioplasty or “arm lift”. The tissues were excised and no liposuction was performed. She is seen here only about six months after surgery and her scars have healed beautifully and will certainly get better after two years of healing. She says she couldn’t be happier with the result of her brachioplasty.
A brachioplasty can be “tricky” as every patient is different and what I end up doing is dependent on what I find at your consultation. Very lax skin requires removal with resulting scars. What I have learned over the years is how nice a result can be obtained with liposuction alone in those who I determine have good elasticity left in their skin to allow for adequate retraction. Why get the big scar if you don’t need it? On the other hand, if things are so bad that the scar is needed, so be it!
Age: 54 Brachioplasty
This is a 54 year old woman who had bariatric surgery for obesity and lost a ton of weight. She had liposuction to her arms performed by another surgeon two years prior to our consultation. She was concerned about the loose skin on her arms, particularly when her arms were elevated. Upon examination, she had loose skin on the lower part of her upper arms with no fat excess.
We discussed her options at length. Options included doing nothing and living with this relatively minor issue, performing additional liposuction at the expense of more skin laxity, or performing a brachioplasty with either a horizontal or vertical skin excision. In her case, I recommended a horizontal pattern skin excision as the vertical option (with the scar only under her arm pit) would not sufficiently address her problem, additional liposuction wouldn’t achieve anything but more loose skin, and doing nothing was not an option (the problem was too significant for her).
She is seen here after a bilateral brachioplasty (removal of skin excess on her arms). You can see that her scars have done quite well and that the loose, wrinkled skin on the back of the arms is gone. With her arms at her side you cannot see the scars. There is no “jiggly” skin with arm movement.
Take home points from this case:
- The choice to perform liposuction or skin excision or both is very dependent on your skin and only an experienced plastic surgeon can make this determination.
- The scar runs from your elbow to your armpit. It is a scar that can become larger than you or your surgeon would prefer. Technique and tension at closure is important as well as the use of post-operative compressive garments and silicone sheeting to minimize this potential.
- Well placed scars hide well.
- Most patients are satisfied with this procedure if the appearance of the scar is reasonable and the scar is reasonably placed.
- In more complex cases, your surgeon may perform a Z-plasty or other scar modification so as to avoid a linear scar that can “tug” or “pull” when you elevate your arms.
Age: 24 Brachioplasty (liposuction of the arms)
This improvement in arm contour was achieved with liposuction alone. The need to remove tissue with the resulting scar depends on the quality of the skin and is a determination best made by an experienced plastic surgeon. In general, you would be surprised how well the skin retracts in most cases.
Brachioplasty
Age: 34 Brachioplasty (liposuction of the arms)
This woman was unhappy with the appearance of her arms. Although she exercised regularly, she was unable to see muscle tone through the layer of arm fat. Therefore, we performed a liposuction of her arms and removed 250cc’s of fat.
Brachioplasty (liposuction of the arms)
Brachioplasty
This middle aged woman lost 150 pounds with diet and exercise alone. We performed a bilateral brachioplasty (arm lift) to remove the extra skin. Note the dramatically improved arm contour and the relatively inconspicuous scars (because the proper placement was performed).
Age: 30 Brachioplasty
