Potential Complications After Lower Body Lift Surgery
More information on general potential complications can be found on our site. LEARN MORE
Whenever someone is having an anaesthetic, no matter what it’s for, then things can potentially go wrong. That is why no surgery should be considered “minor”. Of course, whilst the chances of the following potential problems occurring are extremely small, you still need to know about then:
- Anaesthetic issues – Which can affect heart, lungs or cause a stroke(s).
- Allergic reactions – This can be very mild to life threatening.
- Clots
- Superficial vein clots, which is a complication of the cannula or drip that’s placed in your vein.
- Deep vein clots – these can potentially spread to the lung and be life threatening. We do several things during surgery and after surgery whilst you’re in hospital to minimise the risk of you developing these.
- Wound problems – Such as infection and breakdown.
- Bleeding – Early or late onset.
- Death – Whilst the chances of this is exceeding rare, any of the previous issues can result in this devastating complication.
All these potential problems are standard for any operation, although some operations and some patients have an increased risk of developing them.
Other specific potential complications may include:
- Asymmetry– Differences between the right and left sides or unevenness of the skin.
- Swelling– Swelling after a Belt Lipectomy surgery is normal. However, in some cases, the swelling may take several months to resolve.
- Loss of Sensation– You will experience a loss of sensation around the scars and especially along the lower abdominal wall. Whilst some of this may return, some of it will be permanent.
- Scars – May appear to be worse during the first six months of healing. Ideally, they will become fine white lines after 12-18months. However, scars can sometimes become quite thick and dark – hypertrophic or even keloid.
- Circulation– Circulation may be poor in some areas of the skin around the surgical area. This may lead to a loss of skin and a wound that needs to be dressed until healed. These wounds may require further surgery until fully healed.
- Seromas– A seroma is where fluid builds up under the wound. If this occurs, it may need to be drained with a needle.
- Further surgery – Fine Tuning – It’s not uncommon for any large body contouring surgery patient to require further surgery to “fine tune” the results.
A simple analogy to help explain why patients may require more than one operation is dressmaking. With dressmaking, once its “done” you often need to have a second fitting for some minor adjustments to make it fit just right.
Bra lipectomy surgery is of course many times more complex than dressmaking. The skin and tissues are not static and rigid objects. They swell, they stretch, they shrink, they sag etc. In addition to this, the underlying body is also changing.
So as a surgeon Dr Dona is reconstructing everything that’s 3D and not static, whilst at the same time making sure that he doesn’t push things too far and make it too tight and increase the risk of wounds not healing and breaking down – complications!
With all this in mind, after everything settles and swelling starts to settle and things “relax” into position, it’s normal for things to be nowhere near as tight as they initially were. Therefore, it’s not uncommon for patients to require further surgery to “fine tune” the results, just like you would for a second fitting of a tailor-made dress. This is especially the case in quite large reconstructions.
So, you should not undertake any surgery, especially these larger surgeries, if you’re not prepared or willing to have further surgery, and the potential time off and costs involved.
