6 Years After Surgery. -- Questioning Outcome Quality

[ladiesman69]

Would not even help slightly? I know that when people lose a lot of weight and fail to gain muscle mass to compensate they are left with saggy skin. Having something to fill in the loose skin should at least help somewhat, shouldn't it?

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

Nothing wrong with exercise and building muscle -- I am all for that.  But will it help in this particular case?  Nope!!


Dr Jacobs

[Peregrine]

In the last couple years, I have in fact built up muscle in both my chest and abdomen. While this helped firm up my chest area to some degree, the cratered area has not filled in whatsoever.

I'm by no measure a body builder (I prefer running/cycling for my recreational exercise), but I do understand the importance of working in some strength training to maintain a reasonable level of muscle tone.

For a while, I tried more aggressive weightlifting to see what effect it would produce. If anything, the additional muscle made the situation worse by causing the cratered area to project farther out from my chest.

   

[Alchemist]

Yes, the stretch marks show in these close up photos - and your prior overweight condition has probably affected your skin's elasticity.  Yet, you are still young so your skin should still retain some elasticity.  The craters can probably be fixed -- but you need a really experienced gyne surgeon for this.. Be careful and do your homework.

Dr Jacobs

Hi Dr Jacobs,

So this will be difficult to get anywhere near normal looking? What are the alternative possibilities that might be needed to fix these young man's poor outcome. What percentage of surgeries have this severe or worse longterm outcomes?  What percentage of those are unfixable to "normal" appearance?

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

My guess that, in the hands of an experienced gyne surgeon, he could obtain a significant improvement in the craters and with the lax skin.  He definitely needs some sort of surgery to improve the situation -- there are no non-surgical alternatives.

Dr Jacobs