HMN 2025: How Patients proceed to drop extra pounds within the years after ‘tummy tuck’

Most sufferers present process “tummy tuck” surgical procedure (abdominoplasty) to take away extra pores and skin and tissue after weight reduction proceed to drop extra pounds within the months and years after surgical procedure, suggests new analysis.

The observe?up study appears in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

“We discovered that sufferers not solely maintained their weight reduction after abdominoplasty, but in addition continued to drop extra pounds over time—as much as ten kilos, on common,” feedback senior writer John Y.S. Kim of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. “This postoperative weight reduction seems better, and will increase at later observe?up occasions, in sufferers with initially greater physique mass index [BMI].”

Continued weight reduction as much as 5 years after tummy tuck

Abdominoplasty is a beauty surgical process to enhance the looks of the stomach. In 2023, ASPS Member Surgeons carried out greater than 170,000 abdominoplasties, in response to ASPS statistics. Many of those procedures are carried out in sufferers with large weight reduction that leaves them with extra, sagging pores and skin.

Plastic surgeons have noticed that sufferers could proceed to drop extra pounds after abdominoplasty. However, there’s little analysis proof on this concern, together with whether or not the abdominoplasty process itself contributes to lengthy?time period weight reduction.

Dr. Kim and colleagues carried out a research to evaluate adjustments in physique weight in 188 sufferers who underwent abdominoplasty between 2018 and 2022. Ninety?seven % of sufferers have been girls. The common preoperative weight was about 168 kilos with a BMI of 27.7. Most sufferers underwent liposuction or an additional process to take away extra fats (lipectomy) similtaneously abdominoplasty. Trends in physique weight have been assessed as much as 5 years after surgical procedure.

The outcomes confirmed continued weight reduction after abdominoplasty. At three to 6 months, common weight reduction was between 5 and 6 kilos, with a couple of 3% lower in BMI. From one to 4 years, weight reduction was about 5 kilos, for a BMI discount of about 2%. By 5 years (in a restricted variety of sufferers), common weight reduction was practically ten kilos, with greater than a 5% lower in BMI.

‘Near-constant destructive change in physique weight’ after abdominoplasty

Overall, about 60% of sufferers misplaced weight throughout observe?up. Further evaluation confirmed a “close to fixed destructive change in physique weight that didn’t considerably change over time,” the researchers write.

After adjustment for different components, continued weight reduction was extra possible for older sufferers, for many who underwent liposuction/lipectomy, and people who had by no means smoked. Weight loss was better for sufferers who had greater physique weight and BMI earlier than surgical procedure, and for a small variety of sufferers who used the newer weight-loss remedy semaglutide.

The study provides new proof that “publish?abdominoplasty weight discount is a quantifiable phenomenon and that sufferers present process abdominoplasty proceed to lose a major quantity of weight for as much as 5 years after surgical procedure,” the researchers write. They word some key limitations of their study, together with various observe?up occasions and potential confounding components.

The study can’t definitively clarify why sufferers proceed to drop extra pounds after surgical procedure. However, Dr. Kim and co?authors write, “We have discovered that sufferers who have been capable of obtain weight reduction after their abdominoplasty succeeded in creating wholesome habits that centered round vitamin and train.”

They spotlight the necessity for an “proof?primarily based platform” to evaluate weight adjustments after abdominoplasty and to establish components related to lengthy?time period weight reduction.