My husband has lost 80 pounds in the last year and a half. He is down to 400 pounds, but working out us difficult because he has a large overhang. I know everything says to wait until more weight loss for the tummy tuck, but I think he’d feel better and would be able to exercise more if he could get a tummy tuck and have the bottom flap removed. Just wondering what the experts say. Thank you
0 Answers
Dr. Robert Wilcox wrote on :
This is a difficult clinical decision to make. You did not mention whether your husband has the commonly coexistent obesity problems such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure. My bias would be for him to lose more weight because a 400 pound man represents a very high risk surgical/anesthetic candidate by definition, whether or not he has the accompanying medical problems. I would recommend holding off on surgery and reevaluate when he gets down to 350. I hope this has been helpful.
Dr. Alexander Nein wrote on :
I can sympathize with your husband’s situation. You are correct that in a perfect world, it would be best to wait until he got down to his final lower weight before surgery. Nevertheless, for some people (as in your husband’s case) the excess skin can be cumbersome and make it difficult to move and participate fully in an exercise program. You could consider having a panniculectomy done. In this operation, the excess skin and underlying fat is simply excised without any extra or extensive dissection and no muscle tightening is performed. This operation is shorter in duration than a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) and the recovery is easier. It will remove the excess and allow him to continue his exercise regimen (after he recovers) and may even make his clothes fit better. The disadvantage is that when he completes his weight loss, he may very well still wish to have an abdominoplasty performed in order to get the best result.