Surge of Surgeries Tightens Flabby Skin
In this era of rampant obesity, after people become very heavy, they often turn to stomach stapling or liposuction, which causes them to lose a great deal of weight very quickly. This can leave unsightly folds of flesh hanging all over their bodies.
When this happens, many choose to undergo yet another operation that removes the flabby folds. In Britain, for example, 21 percent of men and 22 percent of women are clinically obese, which is expected to rise to a quarter of all adults in 2010. So it's perhaps not surprising that the number of tummy tucks in Britain has increased since 2003 by nearly a third, according to Harley Medical Group, the nation's largest cosmetic surgery firm.
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) reports a 61 percent rise in 2007 in the number of men having surgery to flatten their stomachs. Liposuction is now second only to nose alterations as the most commonly performed operation on men.
"It is heartbreaking," said Lisa Littlehales, head nurse at the Harley Medical Group, "to see patients who have achieved so much to lose dramatic amounts of weight so embarrassed by their post-weight-loss bodies. Surgery is able to transform both their bodies, which have been so vastly overstretched, and in the process restore their confidence."
A male breast reduction operation - to get rid of embarrassing "moobs" - costs the equivalent of $6,300. To accomplish his work, the surgeon cuts near the nipple and removes excess fat with a liposuction device.
A tummy tuck is a $9,600 operation in which the doctor cuts all the way across the stomach from hip to hip. He then tightens abdominal muscles and removes excess skin.