Body Procedures

Abdominoplasty (“Tummy Tuck”)

Abdominoplasty | Body Contouring | Victoria BC | Saanich BC Abdominoplasty helps to flatten and shape the abdomen and waist by removing excess fat and skin and if required muscle tightening. The best candidates have small amounts of excess fat and loose skin that still remain after dieting and exercise. The procedure can improve contour for women with stretched skin and muscles post pregnancy.

An Abdominoplasty (Tummy Tuck) requires a 2 hour general anesthetic and is done as a daycare procedure with home nursing visits. Typically there is a small amount of liposuction done at the same time in the lateral flank area. Recovery time ranges from two to eight weeks. With a balanced diet and regular exercise, results are long-lasting. Abdominoplasty will leave a scar across the lower abdomen that a bikini will most often conceal.

Body Contouring (Post Weight Loss)

Bariatric or gastric bypass surgery can be highly successful in helping obese patients lose weight. After the procedure, patients are often able to enjoy not only significant weight loss but also greater mobility, relief of symptoms and a lower risk of weight-related disease. One unfortunate result is that the stretched and inelastic skin may hang loosely over the slimmer body.

Post-bariatric plastic surgery combines reconstructive and cosmetic techniques to tighten, lift and contour sagging areas for a more attractive appearance. The patient may choose to treat the arms, breasts, abdomen, buttocks, thighs, neck, face or other areas. If several areas are to be treated this will often require an overnight stay at Victoria Surgery or in the Royal Jubilee Hospital and more than one procedure.

Procedures include:

Arm Lift (Brachioplasty)
Breast Lift
Abdominoplasty
Buttock Lift
Thigh Lift

Liposuction

The most common cosmetic surgery procedure in Canada, liposuction sculpts the body by removing undesirable fat that has not responded to diet and exercise from areas such as the abdomen, waist, hips, buttocks, thighs, knees, chin, cheeks, neck and upper arms. Local anesthesia or general anesthesia may be used, and the procedure can last anywhere from one to several hours depending on the amount of fat being removed. Often liposuction is part of other procedures such as abdominoplasty.

There are several different methods surgeons use when performing liposuction, including power assisted lipectomy (PAL) and suction-assisted lipectomy (SAL). In both types, fluid is injected into the area to be treated. A ½ cm incision is then made in as inconspicuous a place as possible, and a liposuction cannula (small tube) breaks up the fat layer and suctions it out.

It is important to note that liposuction is not a method of weight loss and the best results are achieved after weight loss to reduce well defined persistent troublesome areas.

Lower Body Lift

Also called belt lipectomy, the circumferential lower body lift is performed to remove excess skin from the abdomen, lower back and upper legs.

Candidates for lower body lifts typically suffer from loose (inelastic) skin on many or most areas of the body as a result of age, childbearing or significant weight loss due to diet, exercise or bariatric surgery. Because of this, the procedure is often combined with others such as breast lifts, arm lifts and liposuction to retain a proper body proportion. Body lifts tighten and tone the abdomen, back, buttocks, hips and thighs.

This procedure requires an overnight stay and is completed at the Royal Jubilee Hospital or Victoria Surgery.