Body Lift (belt lipectomy, ower body lift)

The Body Lift

After massive weight loss, tightening up or addressing the normal effects of aging or childbearing, a Body Lift is an excellent way to contour the abdomen, thighs, and buttocks.

The Body Lift, also known as a belt lipectomy or lower Body Lift, improves the appearance of the abdomen, thighs, and buttocks. The operation is performed to remove excess skin and fat following massive weight reduction. It is also performed to fight the effects of aging and childbearing, including excess skin, cellulite, and sagging fatty tissue. Some patients also select Body Lift surgeries to improve the results of gastric bypass, panniculectomy, or liposuction.

Body Lift is like a face lift for the center body. More extensive surgery than the tummy tuck, the Body Lift is performed on the lower torso and upper legs and involves the belly, hips, back, buttocks and outer thighs.

A Belt Lipectomy offers the most dramatic transformation of the mid and lower body. It is truly a resculpting of the abdomen, hips, thighs, and buttocks. Broken into its components, the lower Body Lift includes a tummy tuck (abdomioplasty), a thigh lift, and a buttock lift.

The Body Lift procedure is performed on post bariatric patients as well as patients who have not had weight loss. However, results are just as dramatic in patients who, after a tummy tuck surgery, want a tightening of the skin in their thighs and buttocks. The Body Lift (belt lipectomy) has the advantage that it can be done in one surgical session, or in stages, depending on the patients needs.

To determine if you might be considering having a Body Lift, simply stand in front of a mirror and look at your abdomen. Use your thumb and palm of your hand to hold one edge of skin on your lower abdomen and then grasp the lower skin with all four fingers. If you like how your skin tightens, and the way your pubic mound lifts, you are a candidate for the abdomioplasty procedure.

Now pinch the loose skin around your hips. See how it lifts the hips and thighs. If you like this maneuver, you are a candidate for the lateral thigh lift. In combination with abdominoplasty, this is called an extended abdominoplasty.

Stand facing away from the mirror and look over your shoulder so you can see as much as you can of your backside. Reach back with the palm of you hand and lift the butt. This gives you some idea what a butt lift can accomplish. The traditional butt lift will lift the butt by excising a wedge of skin and pulling up the skin so that the butt is lifted. Occasionally, patients also want some fat injection into the buttocks if the butt has become very flat as a result of all the weight loss. The technique of transferring fat into the buttocks is called brazilian butt lift.

If you want improvement in all these areas, you are a good candidate for the Lower Body Lift (belt lipectomy) cosmetic surgery procedure.

Are You a Candidate For a Body Lift?

There are several groups of candidates for the extensive surgery involved in a Body Lift. The first group includes patients who have lost a great amount of weight, either through gastric bypass surgery, intestinal bypass surgery or change in nutrition and fitness habits. These people have lost between 60 and 350 pounds, but are left with excess skin on their faces, breasts, backs, trunks and thighs. Those who have lost this much weight need plastic surgery to their entire bodies, including their arms and face, in order to attain normal body contours.

People who are not able to lose 30 or 40 pounds through diet or exercise also may opt for Body Lift surgeries. Instead of tummy tucks, which might create an imbalanced contour, people in this category choose to have their whole trunk altered. Normal weight women in their 30s and 40s, often many years past giving birth, also opt for Body Lift surgery to remove remaining post-baby weight and additional weight that came naturally with age. Some patients select Body Lift surgeries to correct overly aggressive liposuction surgeries.

Procedures That Fall Into The Body Lift Category

Torsoplasty
Circumferential Torsoplasty
Central Body Lift
Lower Body Lift
Circumferential Panniculectomy
Circumferential Lipectomy

Body Lift Procedure

Although the steps of the Body Lift procedure differ depending on the needs of the patient, the surgery usually starts with a horizontal incision just above the pubic area. Surgeons incise a circle around the belly button (the umbilicus) so it stays attached to the body. They then tighten the abdominal muscles by stitching the overlying sheet of tissue and that allows the muscles to grow back together again. (Pregnancy can also force the stomach muscles to part.) Physicians trim away excess skin and fat, perhaps do some liposuction and then pull the sheet of skin toward the rib cage, trim it. The fat and skin from above the belly button is pulled down and sutured in place, and the belly button is pulled out to its normal position.
Doctors insert small plastic drains – which stay in place for 12 to 18 hours – and then stitch the incision close. Finally, a tight elastic dressing is applied to the stomach.

The procedure continues with the rest of the body parts, and often involves liposuction on the outer thighs. In all, the Body Lift surgery can take between 3 and 7 hours.

Recovery

Recovery from the Body Lift can be painful and extended. Patients have tubes and drains left in their skin for one to two weeks post surgery to drain any tissue fluid or blood. They are encouraged to walk right away, and progressively move more as days pass. Most patients resume normal activity in four to six weeks after Body Lift surgery.