Body Contouring Procedures

Intro to Bariatric Surgery and Body Contouring

Obesity is the most important health care problem of the 21st century. It has reached epidemic proportions in the US, with the rest of the world quickly catching up. In the 1960s & 70s Dr. Mason, of the University of Iowa, pioneered the field of “Bariatric surgery”.

Bariatric surgery involves a number of operations that either restrict food intake or re-route the intestines so the patient is not able to absorb all the calories they eat. It is performed by general surgeons who specialize in weight reduction. Dr. Mason is considered the father of bariatric surgery and from the 60s to the late 90s the University of Iowa was one of the few places in the world where patients could undergo these types of procedures.

Reasons for Body Contouring

After an obese patient loses weight either through “bariatric surgery” or “diet and exercise” they often end up with a large amount of excess skin and remnant fat which may leave them unsatisfied with their appearance. In some instances the remaining excess skin can lead to functional problems such as recurrent rashes and difficulty in staying clean. We call this type of patient a “massive weight loss patient.”

When Dr. Al Aly became faculty in the Division of Plastic Surgery at the University of Iowa in the mid 90s, there was a back log of these patients because of Dr. Mason’s presence. Up to the mid 90s there were few centers around the country that had any significant experience with bariatric surgery, so the “massive weight loss patient” was rather unique to the University of Iowa. Massive weight loss patients are quite different and distinctive in their presentation and characteristics, when compared to any other group of plastic surgery patients. In order to treat their unique problems, Dr. Aly developed and pioneered a “new subspecialty” of plastic surgery called ”Body contouring after massive weight loss."

Common Procedures

”Body contouring after massive weight loss” includes procedures such as belt lipectomy/body lifts, brachioplasty/arm reductions, upper body lifts/arm & upper back roll reduction with breast reconstruction, and vertical thigh reductions, which were either invented or developed by Drs. Aly, far in advance of the rest of the world. Subsequently, when the bariatric surgery boom hit in 2000, plastic surgeons started to see very large numbers of massive weight loss patients but had little knowledge of how to deal with them.

Due to this demand by plastic surgeons to learn about this new burgeoning sub-specialty, Dr. Aly was asked to publish the first ever textbook , which is considered “the bible” on the subject, entitled “Body Contouring After Massive Weight Loss”.

A recent invitation that Dr. Aly received to lecture to a foreign country’s plastic surgery society sums up the position of this book:

You are acknowledged world-wide as a pioneer in body contouring procedures after massive weight loss and we are very familiar with your book which is a master-class on the subject, as well as your editorship of a volume of the subject in the Clinics in Plastic Surgery last year. Your contributions are tantamount to a Bible on the subject.

Since the year 2000 Dr. Aly has lectured and/or performed surgery in 25 countries and three continents so that plastic surgeon’s world wide can be educated on the subject of body contouring after massive weight loss. He has lectured extensively within the US.