Body Lift Surgery (Lipectomy)

Considering Body Lift surgery?

Body lift surgery, also known as a lipectomy, focuses on toning the body. There are three different choices available for you to choose from when considering body lift surgery. This will depend on the areas in which you are looking to tone:

Upper Body Lift

An upper body lift should be your choice of procedure if you are looking to focus on toning anything on the top half of your body including breasts, chest and the mid back.

Lower Body Lift

Also referred to as a belt lipectomy,  lower body lift surgery focuses on toning the lower areas of the body. If you are therefore looking to tighten your tummy, buttocks, thighs, or back, this would be the ideal choice for you.

Total Body Lift

A total body lift will need to be considered if you are looking at toning areas in both the upper and lower part of the body.

How will it impact your life?

If you have lost a significant amount of weight, you may find that you cannot show off your hard work and perseverance in the way that you had hoped to, due to excess skin in certain areas of your body, or all over. You may have had children, and found that some areas haven’t sprung back into tautness since. You may have lots of areas that you wish to tackle, but don’t want to put your body through the stress of having multiple procedures, and anaesthetics. This can effect your confidence and may make you want to hide away from showing off your body in the way that you want to.  Body lift surgery, can help to resolve all those problem areas under one general anaesthetic, giving you back your confidence and being able to show off your body in the way that you want to.

Is Body Lift Surgery right for you?

This procedure is carried out in a hospital environment and will require a minimum 2 night stay. The body lift surgery takes about four to seven hours to complete.  You will be put to sleep using either an IV sedation or general anaesthesia. A lower body lift begins with your surgeon creating a belt-like incision above the buttocks and outer thighs. Your surgeon may decide to further separate the thigh skin to help with your unique procedure. The surgeon will then suture this area and begin performing a tummy tuck, also known as an abdominoplasty. The next part of the surgical procedure involves a horizontal incision made along the pubic line area, followed by the removal of fatty tissues from the belly button and further downward. Next, your surgeon will remove any excess fat from these areas using liposuction. The surgeon will then tighten the muscles in this area after the excess skin is detached. The remaining skin is then repositioned and sutured at the pubic line area. The upper body lift is similar, except that the incision is made on the bra-line. The back fat rolls will be removed and the waist will be toned using similar procedures as the lower body lift.

After your surgery and beyond…

A body lift is a major surgical procedure and will require a significant amount of time to ensure a full recovery. The average recovery time frame for this procedure is four to six weeks, but each individual is different and will recover at different speeds. You may endure some pain and discomfort following your surgery. This can be maintained with intravenous medication to start and over time move to oral medication.  Drainage tubes will be inserted during your body lift procedure. These will be removed  by a nurse or surgeon when the drainage fluid coming out is low. A complete list of follow-up instructions will be given to you by your surgeon. Normal and strenuous activities should be avoided until you are fully recovered from your procedure. It is advised to allow six to eight weeks before embarking on any strenuous activities such as exercising.

Final results from your body lift procedure will show once the scars have matured fully around six months after your surgery. Every individual is different when it comes to scarring and some report that their scars fade faster than what others might. Your results from having a body lift should last for quite some time, but by maintaining a healthy diet and doing routine exercises your results will improve over time.

The next step

We always encourage people to do as much research as they can when considering cosmetic surgery, so for more information on body lift surgery: