Therapeutic strategy
The time of surgery:
The general consensus is to operate when weight has been stable for several months, as for example twelve months after a gastroplasty or at the beginning of an intensive diet.
However, many consulting patients at this point still have a few kilos impossible to lose with respect to their ideal weight goals (5 to 8 kilos).
This is not a drawback for two reasons:
- The plastic surgery procedure restores motivation to lose weight when the patient sees that her body can continue to change shape.
- The procedure eliminates weight impossible to lose even with a highly effective surgical procedure or a strict diet:
- abdominal surgery removes on average 2 to 3 kg
- a body lift (all around the body) 4 to 6 kg
- breast reduction leads to the removal of between 0.5 and 1 kg per breast (mammoplasty)
- liposuction can eliminate 3 to 4 kg
Furthermore, it is not uncommon for a patient to lose an additional 4 to 5 kg following surgery, solely due to postoperative stress and its after-effects.
Where to start?
It is always necessary to start by operating on the area that causes the greatest discomfort. In practice, this is the abdomen. Some patients prefer to begin with breast reduction because this procedure has only short-term after-effects. These patients can usually return to work after a short period of time (15 days of sick leave on average). Others prefer to change their face first in spite of a heavy or sagging abdominal area because the face is an individual’s most visible feature (‘they can no longer stand seeing their reflections in the mirror when they get up in the morning’).
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