Dr. Michael Salzhauer: You’re welcome, have a great day. We have another caller? Jeannine Morrissette: Yes. Everybody knows the answer. I’m really surprised at this. Dr. Michael Salzhauer: I don’t know why I’m so out of the loop. I guess you can tell I’m not that hip a guy because I thought these were hard questions. Jeannine Morrissette: Let’s take Becky. Becky? Dr. Michael Salzhauer: Hi, Becky. Becky: Hi. Jeannine Morrissette: Hi, Becky. Becky: Hi. Dr. Michael Salzhauer: Hi, you’re speaking with Dr. Salzhauer on Nip/Talk Radio. How can I help you? Becky: Yes. I have a question. I’ve lost a lot of weight quite quickly and I’ve heard a procedure of being able to tighten loose skin. Dr. Michael Salzhauer: Yes. Becky: How successful is this type of procedure? Dr. Michael Salzhauer: It’s very successful, actually, and depending on how much weight you lost, the incision would either go basically from hip to hip, or if you’ve lost, let’s say, more than 60-70 pounds, we could do what’s called a lower body lift, which is actually an incision completely around your waist like a belt, and we take out all that extra skin that’s both in the front and the back. It’s a very common procedure. You know with the proliferation of massive weight loss procedures, in other words with gastric bypass banding a la Al Roker and those types, it’s become very, very popular. We’re seeing more and more patients that have had massive weight loss. Now, it’s great to lose weight but the skin doesn’t always contract back and there can be a lot of skin, and it can hang forward as a pannus and it can hard to clean and take care of. It can even get painful. So again, the procedure is called a lower body lift. We do them all the time. It take about 5-6 hours depending on your state of health. It is either done in the hospital or in our own private surgical suite here in Bal Harbour. Some patients stay overnight, others go home the same day. It really depends on your general state of health to begin with. But those procedures are very successful and they’re very, very common. Something like 40,000 people last year underwent gastric bypass surgery in the U.S. All of those patients at some point are going to need these lower body lift-type procedures. Becky: Now will this pertain to the upper body too, like as far as the sagging skin on arms? Dr. Michael Salzhauer: Absolutely. The sagging skin on the arms can be fixed by a procedure called the brachioplasty. Now, the incision for the arm lift can either extend halfway down the upper arm, and we try to hide it in the inseam so that when you’re walking normally, the scar is hidden. That’s a minimal incision brachioplasty. Now the traditional brachioplasty incision goes all the way down to the elbow. It’s a little bit harder to hide that scar but when you’re in clothes, it looks fabulous obviously. We can decrease the circumference of the arms by 30-40%, depending on how much skin you have. Those are procedures we do here at Bal Harbour Plastic Surgery Associates all the time, and it’s very gratifying for me and the patients. Becky: Okay, well great. Well, thank you very much. Jeannine Morrissette: Thank you very much and have a great day. Dr. Michael Salzhauer: You’re very welcome, and thank you for calling. Thank you for calling. Becky: Thank you, you too. Jeannine Morrissette: Thank you. Becky: Bye-bye.

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