Desire for body contouring surgery after bariatric surgery: do body mass index and weight loss matter?

Abstract

There is disparity between the number of postbariatric surgery subjects who desire body contouring and those who receive it due to lack of resources or insurance criteria. The authors evaluate the desire for body contouring after bariatric surgery and its relationship with demographic patient characteristics. Three hundred sixty patients who had undergone bariatric surgery procedures >1 year previously completed a questionnaire designed by the surgical team to analyze each patient's desire for body contouring by area (face, upper arm, upper back, chin/neck, chest/breast, waist/abdomen, lower back, rear/buttock), scored from 0 to 3 (do not want, want somewhat, want, want a great deal). Data were compared with patient characteristics, postoperative body mass index (BMI), amount of weight loss, and BMI difference (ΔBMI). Most patients desired body contouring surgery, with high or very high desire for waist/abdomen (62.2%), upper arm (37.6%), chest/breast (28.3%), and rear/buttock (35.6%) contouring. Many patients (36.4%) cited "very high" expectations for how body contouring might change their appearance. Patients >50 years old and >3 years postsurgery had a significantly lower desire. Patients with a ΔBMI >10 and with a weight loss >20 kg showed a significantly stronger overall desire for body contouring compared with other groups. Most patients desire body contouring surgery after bariatric surgery, and our multivariate analysis showed a significant positive association between female sex, younger age, amount of weight loss, and ΔBMI with desire for body contouring.