Refined running suture lower body lift in massive weight loss patients

The circumferential lower body lift is a recognized procedure for body contouring of massive weight loss (MWL) patients. We present a modified suture technique and setup, which significantly reduce the operative time and increase the efficiency of the procedure. We included 59 MWL patients undergoing lower body lift with fleur-de-lis. We registered demographics, weight loss method, co-morbidity, perioperative measurements and postoperative complications. The number of surgeons, suture technique and time for surgery were registered. The mean operative time for one surgeon using interrupted sutures was 195±28 minutes compared to 131±36 minutes for one surgeon using running sutures (P=0.0001). The mean operative time for two surgeons using running sutures was 88±13 minutes (P=0.0001). The use of running sutures as well as the number of surgeons significantly reduced the time for surgery. The lower body lift including a fleur-de-lis abdominoplasty can be performed in 1.5 hours with an optimal setup and surgical technique.