Abdominoplasty after weight loss in morbidly obese patients: a 4-year clinical experience

BACKGROUND: Morbid obesity is associated with various co-morbidities. With the significant weight loss, new dysfunctions arise, and prior body contour disorders start to severely affect the patient's quality of life. The abdominal apron is generally the greater and the first disturbance faced by the post-bariatric patient. METHODS: The authors retrospectively reviewed their clinical experience in the treatment of those disorders through abdominoplasty. The benefits in terms of relief of said disorders and drawbacks in terms of surgical complications are described. RESULTS: 117 abdominoplasties were performed from January 2002 to December 2005 on patients who had lost significant weight. The tissue removed ranged from 400 g to 10,500 g of adipose-cutaneous tissue (mean 2,276.5 g). Mean duration of the procedure was 4 hours and 25 minutes, with a maximum of 7 and a minimum of 2 and 40. Complication rate was 50.43%. CONCLUSION: Abdominoplasty in the post-obese patient is an apparently simple procedure, which in fact causes a high rate of surgical complications. The complication rate is higher than that of cosmetic abdominoplasties. Nevertheless, the improvement in quality of life following such a procedure renders it a fundamental step in the rehabilitation of the formerly obese patient.