International Teaching
on Body Contouring After Weight Loss

When I finished my training in plastic surgery, I started my career at the University of Iowa. This was very fortunate for me since it happened to be the birthplace of bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery is a branch of general surgery that specializes in surgical approaches to help obese patients lose weight.

When I arrived at the University of Iowa, there was a concentration of patients who had experienced massive weight loss. These patients were somewhat limited geographically to the Midwest region of the US. This group of patients originally lost their weight through interventions developed by a University of Iowa pioneer, Dr. Edward E. Mason, the “father of bariatric surgery.” Because of this, they started to come to the plastic surgery division at the University of Iowa for their body contouring plastic surgery procedures.

Dr. Aly Pioneered Procedures for Weight Loss Patients

I quickly found that the ordinary procedures plastic surgeons learn in their residency training did not solve the problems of massive weight loss patients. These patients presented with rather complex and, at the time, yet uncategorized deformities in multiple areas of the body.

Faced with these deformities and spurred on by patients’ desires to improve their bodies, I was pushed to pioneer the then brand new subspecialty of plastic surgery called “body contouring after massive weight loss.”

These Post-Weight-Loss Body Contouring Procedures Include:

• Belt lipectomy/body lift
• Brachioplasty (arm lift or reduction)
• Upper body lift
• Thigh reduction (thigh lift)

Improvements in Weight Loss Surgeries Necessitated a New Type of Body Contouring Surgery

Around the turn of the century, bariatric surgery received a major boost with the introduction of a number of weight-loss surgeries. These were better tolerated and less risky than those originally invented by Dr. Mason. Up to that time, I was performing these surgeries on a group of patients limited to the Midwest, as mentioned above.

Most plastic surgeons before that time probably never encountered a single massive weight loss patient in their entire career. Suddenly, massive weight loss patients were popping up all over the country in fairly large numbers. Unfortunately, plastic surgeons were simply not trained to take care of their needs, with the exception of our practice at the University of Iowa.

Dr. Aly Educated Plastic Surgeons on Body Contouring for Massive Weight Loss Patients

I published the first article written on the subject of body contouring in massive weight loss patients in 2003. Around that time, the number of these patients seeking help from plastic surgeons increased dramatically. There was a sudden need for education of the entire plastic surgery community on how to handle massive weight loss patients.