What Is The Procedure For Arm Lift Surgery? - Cosmetic Surgery Guide


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The first stage of the entire procedure is a consultation. As a part of this, your upper arm will be examined in a variety of positions, to observe the skin and excess underlying fat in the upper arm, elbow and armpit. As well as the risks associated with the surgical procedure, the examinations and consultations (which will ascertain your health as well as medical background and may include questions about aspects of your lifestyle) that happen beforehand can be daunting. The questions which you will be asked about any medications which you are on are especially important as some medications can react badly with a general anaesthetic, causing potentially harmful complications.

Consultations for arm lift surgery

Before you go to have your consultation, research the procedure, surgeon and surgery. Prepare any questions which you may have, and if your memory isn't great, be ready to make notes of any answers which will be useful or enlightening with regards to the surgery. Try not to be overly ambitious about what you expect the outcomes of the surgery, because this may cause your surgeon to have doubts about whether or not the end result will come as a disappointment to you. Do not be embarrassed about any questions which you want to ask the surgeon as the likelihood is that they have taken part in many consultations in the past, and therefore had far more embarrassing (or even the same) questions asked before. This will also be the best time to bring up any pressing concerns which you may have with regards to any existing health condition and how the surgery will affect it or how it might affect the arm lift procedure.

During the consultation, your surgeon will discuss the specifics of the surgery and what the best course of action will be. Personal preferences vary with regard to arm lift surgery, and this is the time when you can inform the surgeon which areas you would like to have removed, and also listen to their advice on the matter.

The arm lift procedure

During the procedure you will lie down on an operating table with either one or both of your arms raised, this makes it easier for the surgeon to see the area on which they are working, reduces the blood flow to your arms (to prevent blood loss during surgery) and allows for the possibility that a team of surgeons can work on each arm at the same time. You may, if you have been given a general anaesthetic, be taken into the area where the surgery is taking place (the operating theatre) on something similar to a stretcher. A needle will then be placed into your arm, which is attached to a thin tube. The anaesthetic will be administered through this tube, directly into your blood. If for some reason you are instead having a local anaesthetic (that is a form of anaesthetic which only affects the area of your body in and around the place where surgery is happening (most likely your upper arm), this will probably be administered via a simple injection. An anaesthetist (different from the surgeon, as there role during your surgery will be to monitor your vital signs such as heart rate and breathing) will administer the anaesthetic and will then be responsible for ensuring that the anaesthetic isn't causing complications during the procedure.

Markings will be drawn on the arm; these show the surgeon where to make their incisions. The surgeon will have made a decision by this point about whether to make short or long incisions. Short incisions in those with more excess skin and body fat on their arms are less likely to improve the arms' shape. Around this point, you will be given a form of anaesthetic.

An incision will then be made somewhere between your armpit and elbow (the length of the incision varies depending on your individual circumstances), along the underside of your arm.

Excess skin and possibly fat will then be surgically removed (or cut away) from the underside of your arm.

Following the removal of the excess tissue, the edges of the incision are joined by stitching (the medical term being suturing) the skin back together. Two types of stitches can be used, those which are biodegradable (so they will dissolve naturally at the same time as the wound is healing) and are normally not visible as they are under the skin, and regular stitches. If your surgeon uses the latter to join up the edges of the incision, at some point after the wound has healed they will need to be removed by a surgeon.

The whole procedure is relatively quick, taking roughly two hours. At the end of the procedure (if you have been under general anaesthetic), after the surgeon has sutured the incision, the anaesthetist (who is still present and will have been monitoring your vital signs) will supply you with oxygen from a tank attached to a mouthpiece. The supply of oxygen to your lungs will cause your body to awake from the anaesthetic, regaining sensation etc. However, this does not mean that you will be conscious as your body is still awake when you are sleeping naturally, and this does not cause you to stay awake. You will most likely not wake up in the same room where your surgery occurred (you may have seen films or television shows where the patient awakes after surgery in a hospital bed, and they are slightly dazed and confused), only once you are conscious will the anaesthetist probably stop monitoring your vital signs (though medical staff may check them at intervals to be safe). You may still feel some after effects once you have woken up, before the general anaesthetic wears off completely.

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