what happened to my arm

There are two issues which age the arm: loose skin and fat.

FAT: Everyone has a different amount of fat in the arm. This can change over time (oh the joy of menopause), and has little to do with how much you do arm exercises. Even with major weight loss, you may find you still have fat in the arm. The treatment for excess fat is liposuction. I prefer this surgery to directly cutting out skin if I can, as the brachioplasty scar tends to be big and heals poorly. I use ultrasonic energy and a broad area to try to tighten the skin simultaneously. I prefer this to coolsculpt for skin quality.

SKIN: Particularly after major weight loss, there is poor skin tone and excess hanging skin. For this reason, many won’t wear short-sleeved shirts or tank tops due to the laxity of their upper arm skin. An arm lift, called a brachioplasty, involves the excision of excess skin and liposuction of the fat. This gives you a scar running down to the elbow.

Brachioplasty things to think about

Brachioplasties are tough. All of us have sat in front of a mirror and grabbed the arm skin and thought, “if it just looked like this….” The issue with a true brachioplasty, where you are cutting out the extra skin, is the scar just doesn’t heal well.

What is your goal? Is your goal to wear tank tops? short sleeved shirts? If you have a visible scar would you do that?
What amount of scar are you okay with? A tiny scar at the elbow (liposuction)? or a scar which runs from the armpit down to the elbow (brachioplasty)?
There is no way to tighten the skin nonsurgically. You cannot tone it up in the gym. No laser, peel, or product is going to tighten the skin much.

I do liposuction to the arm all the time, and I love it. A true brachioplasty, with a scar to the elbow, is a surgery I do not perform often. Generally the scar I think is worse than what you have. The one exception for me is those patients who have had major weight loss where they cannot buy shirts because of the hanging skin.

Brachioplasty Scar

Arm lift scars are tough. Liposuction scars are not.

SCAR POSITION & LENGTH. The scar depends on the amount of skin laxity and what you are okay with as far as tightness vs. scar.

If you have good skin tone and haven’t had major weight changes, liposuction alone can contour the arm. This helps give definition of the underlying muscles and decreases the size of the arm. This is by far my preferred choice due to the tiny scar. The skin does tighten some, particularly with ultrasonic liposuction.
If you have loose skin, particularly when you have had major weight loss (75 pounds or more), then the skin may need to be removed, which leaves a scar.
- For those with mild laxity going to the mid arm, I can do a small scar. As this is a cosmetic body contouring procedure, I try to hide and minimize the scar in the armpit only. This sounds like a great surgery, but it has limited use, so I do not do it often. Unlike a thigh lift, there is nothing to “anchor” the tissue to in the armpit, so it can cause the skin to web in the armpit.
- For people who have undergone significant weight loss, with loose skin running to the elbow, a larger scar usually is necessary. This runs along the inside of the arm, so it is not visible when your arm is against your side, and runs from the armpit to the elbow. The biggest issue of this surgery is the scar tends to widen and be visible, seen in most patients. If you see a photo of a great scar, find out how long after surgery the photo was taken. The scars look great initially. It is over time that they redden, elevate, or widen.

Arm Lift

what happened to my arm

Brachioplasty things to think about

Brachioplasty Scar