Liposuction and tightening / lifting skin
Liposuction can be a good tool for tightening the skin. The removal of quantities of fat from under the skin allows the elastic skin to retract to its genetically predetermined position and sometimes even smaller.
Good examples of this effect are seen after liposuction to the arms, stomach areas and breasts.
The level of skin retraction following liposuction is also determined by the age of the patient, quality of skin, presence of underlying disease or smoking and the presence of previous skin damage such as caused by childbirth and surgery.
Liposuction techniques such as subdermal undermining using fine cannulas can stimulate further skin retraction. Only in rare circumstances will additional skin tightening surgery be required.
Surgical lifts such as a rhytidectomy (facelift), mastopexy (breast lift), abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), or lower body lift, thigh lift, or buttock lift can be utilised when sagging skin alone is the issue or after massive weight loss when the combination of large amounts of skin and shrunken fat cause significant skin droop.
Large volume Liposuction ( SAL) in combination with other surgery is common, but may have higher complication rates. When done simultaneously, SAL is done minimally in the areas of the undermined tissues to minimize further insult to the blood supply, however a new techniques in tummytuck surgery involves vigorous liposuction first before excising the redundant skin.
Further Reading
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