Bra Line Back Lift

A bra line back lift is a body contouring procedure that is tailored to the back folds that mostly women, but also some men, experience. It occurs when a person has two folds on their back which are not necessarily the love handles. There may be one or two folds up the back of the patient that may happen naturally or after weight gain and loss.

This procedure addresses that issue by taking those back folds away.  The patient can actually get a full rejuvenation of the back, and even the lower back, because everything is pulled up. The fat that has to be sacrificed is a line which goes across that should be hidden in the bra line.

OTHER METHODS

There are other ways this problem has been addressed. Some patients have had a flankplasty with the incisions along the sides of the chest and down to where the love handles are located.

There are people who will do higher scars with a total abdominoplasty or a circumferential abdominoplasty. However, these methods do not directly address those folds. The bra line back lift incision is right in the middle of where the folds are and it rejuvenates these folds nicely.

With the bra line back lift, it helps to look at the patient from the back and then draw a line from the top of their armpit which is where their arm meets their chest. If there are folds within that line or within 20 cm of that line going downwards, those will all be addressed with this procedure.

LIMITATIONS

If the patient is extremely heavy (think of someone with a very large BMI) and also has a very thick back, there is a limit to how much the bra line back lift can help that patient. This procedure is best served for patients that have had a weight loss or a patient that has a lot of skin folds.

There are variations within that spectrum as well. Someone who may have some thickness back there can still see quite a bit of difference by having a bra line back lift. It is  the severely thick area that the procedure really cannot do all that much for in the long run. Plus, patients who are very heavy and thick can get some stretching of the scar.

COMPLICATIONS

When it comes to long or short term complications, there really have not been any that have been seen yet. Some patients have a little bit of scar pain but it is nothing that is debilitating. There can be some widening of the scar in a person who is heavier. That patient can get some stretching and widening of the scar. Typically, the scar is 1mm to 2mm. If someone is heavier and has a lot of weight pulling down on the scar, the scar can stretch and widen to about 1cm. The fact that this can happen is a good reason to lose weight before the procedure. In general, 90% of patients do not see a significant amount of scar stretching and widening. It is just the heavier patients that may see some stretching of the scar.

RECOVERY

In terms of downtime and recovery, patients should take about two weeks off work. They cannot lift any kind of weight that is greater than 10 pounds for a period of three to four weeks. It is an even longer time before they can go back to the gym and start doing aggressive exercise. They have to wait at least six weeks before they can resume aggressive exercising. It is a pretty extensive recovery and patients have to be careful not to pull the incision apart or do anything to damage that area and cause complications.

RESULTS

When it comes to seeing the results, the visible effects are immediate. The results can be seen once the patient is lucid from the anesthesia and able to look at the area. The patient will see the results right away. The improvement of the area is finished after the surgery and there is not a continual improvement.

The improvements and results are permanent as long as there is not a large weight gain and then a subsequent loss. In general with plastic surgery, all results can be reversed if there is a large weight gain and then a large weight loss. As long as that does not happen and patients maintain and stay within the same amount of weight, everything should be the same and the results should be maintained.

FINAL THOUGHTS

A bra line back lift is a procedure that takes away the back folds on the back of a patient that are not necessarily the love handles of a person. While the folds are mainly experienced by women, they can be found on male patients as well. The procedure is best performed by an experienced and board-certified physician. While the procedure does not work as well on heavier people with thicker backs, patients should schedule a consultation with a doctor to determine if they are a good candidate for a bra line back lift.

Written by Cosmetic Town Editorial Team- MA

Based on an exclusive interview with Seth Jones, MD in Hyannis, MA