Abdominoplasty

45 year old female unhappy with “love-handles”, and desires increased volume in buttocks.

Procedure: Abdominoplasty with liposuction to abdomen, flanks (love-handles), hips, and upper lateral thighs, with fat grafting to upper buttocks.

This patient had minimal excess skin and fat. However, her fat distribution was not uniform. The surgical goal was to remove the excess fat throughout the abdomen to improve flatness and decrease ”skin rolls” when sitting; remove excess fat along the flanks/love-handles, hips and thighs, thereby re-creating the smooth transition of an hour-glass figure; and to improve buttock lift and fullness with fat grafting to upper buttocks. While abdominoplasty was performed, its main purpose was to remove the loose skin following liposuction.

49-year-old female presents for rejuvenation of the abdomen, specifically the lower-central abdominal fat excess. She did not desire any alteration to her current hour-glass figure and therefore declined any liposuction augmentation to the hips, buttocks, or thighs.

Procedure: Liposuction to the abdomen. Fat re-distribution was performed aggressively along the abdominal flanks, in keeping with the patient’s wishes.

One would usually remove fat along the abdominal flanks in a case such as this, thereby removing the skin folds seen along the posterior flanks (see lower two photos). However, this case shows how fat re-distribution (ie: no fat removal, fat is spread out along zones of transition) can be a very powerful tool for improving one’s figure. Fat re-distribution will always improve the results gained from liposuction, and it is always performed in all of my cases.

While further augmentations were certainly possible, this patient’s goals were completely met through this single procedure.

39 year old female unhappy with excess subcutaneous fat of abdomen, flanks, hips and upper lateral thighs. Desires improvement specifically with lower central abdominal fat and improvement with hour-glass figure.

Procedure: Liposuction to the abdomen, flanks (love handles), hips, upper lateral thighs, and lower buttocks. Per patient request, a moderate amount of “etching” was performed to accentuate “six-pack” muscles and oblique muscles.

This case demonstrates how liposuction alone can provide significant cosmetic improvement without any “artificial” component. The key to her results included: Decrease amount of subcutaneous fat throughout all regions; remove additional fat along “six-pack” and oblique muscles to provide an athletic abdominal contour; remove “stubborn” fat from hips and upper lateral thighs to improve hour-glass figure while also decreasing waist-line circumference; remove additional fat from lower buttocks to help re-create a defined buttock-thigh crease.

37 year old female unhappy with lower central abdominal fat and love-handles, both of which were resistant to further diet and exercise.

Procedure: Liposuction to entire abdomen, flanks (love-handles) and hips. Fat re-distribution was performed along the “perimeter” of all areas, thereby smoothing the transition from region to region.

This case shows how liposuction alone, in a patient with good skin elasticity, can resolve any moderate fat excess without resulting in hanging loose skin. The central lower abdomen was much improved. However, the residual “bulge” (side profile) is due to muscle laxity. The patient did not desire repair of the muscle laxity (rectus diastasis repair). This patient also required a significant amount of liposuction to the love-handles; this alone improved the appearance and balance of the hips and buttocks. A conservative amount of liposuction was then needed for the hips. A significant amount of fat re-distribution was then performed at all regions to complete the smoothing transition of her hour-glass figure (this included the upper back/posterior brassier line, an area often over-looked).