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Short Scar Techniques For Arm Lifts Are More Risky Than They Are Worth

August 2nd, 2011 by John Di Saia, M.D. in Health Tips, Opinion

Brachioplasty Before Surgery

Brachioplasty surgery has been called the “Arm Lift” and it kinda does “lift” the arm. The areas treated in the upper arm have been called amongst other things “Bat Wings.” Surgery tightens the skin around the upper arm which can hang unattractively in those who have lost a good deal of weight. This varies of course.

Traditional brachioplasty surgery is performed through an incision (and leaves a scar) from the arm pit to the elbow. Care is taken to try to make the scar fall into a less often seen area when the arms are at the sides. The scars from surgery

take a year or more to mature and are often not the prettiest even when efforts are made to make them so at surgery.

Short scar techniques have come around, but in many cases either fail to fix the problem adequately or bind the arm to the chest in a disabling manner.

The bottom line on brachioplasty is that the “short scar” methods are probably more risky than they are worth and the scars from surgery take a year or more to mature in many cases. Still for the gastric bypass patient these operations are occasionally desirable.

(left) Brachioplasty Result at 10 months

*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*

Tags: Arm Lift, Brachioplasty, Cosmetic Surgery, Gastric Bypass, Plastic Surgery, Scar, Short Scar Technique, Tightened Skin, Truth, Upper Arm, Weight Loss