Have you undergone weight loss but still have difficulty with excess skin and fat on the upper arms? Going private for the procedure ensures that you get seen quicker and can feel confident to live life to the full once more.
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Join Kate Comrie, Cosmetic Nurse Specialist us as we explore the transformative world of brachioplasty, also known as arm lift surgery.
A brachioplasty is having excess skin and fat removed from the top of your arms. So bingo wings, some people call them. If you've lost any weight or just generally over time, age, gravity, you can get some laxity in your upper arms and some people just don't like it.
They always wear long sleeves and want to cover them up. So for people like that who have no confidence and just want to hide their arms, brachioplasty will remove the excess skin, fat, and tissue and give you a slimmer arm more comparable probably to your lower arm, your forearm as well.
People have brachioplasty or an arm lift to remove the excess skin, fat, and tissue that can be left behind following age, time, gravity, weight loss. And it just makes people feel far more confident. A lot of the time people will lose that confidence and they don't want to wear certain items of clothing, strappy tops, short sleeves. So it's more about building self-confidence and feeling happy in your clothes and comfortable.
In your initial consultation with your consultant, you will come into the hospital and you will go into an outpatient clinic room where you'll meet the surgeon and myself and we will go through some questions with you. We'll ask you about your medical history, your social history, make sure that you've got some support after surgery, that you're fit and well enough to have surgery. And we will ask you what it is that bothers you, what you want from the surgery.
And we'll make sure that we fully understand what it is that you're expecting and how we can help to fix that. And we will offer you what we believe to be the best option as well as other options available to you. So you can have slightly longer or shorter scars. Sometimes it can go into the armpit. And some people also like it to go down onto the chest wall just to remove any extra skin that you might have, back fat, bra overhang. So this is something that can also be implemented to the surgery itself.
As with any procedure, there is a level of discomfort. So you will have incisions, but generally these aren't painful. You will have some dressings or some tape over those incisions. And then we'll ask you to wear some compression garments for around about six weeks. We'll also ask you to elevate your arms and not extend them more than about a 90 degree angle. However, we do want you to move your shoulders so that these don't get sore or stiff, but generally speaking, no, it's not painful surgery.
Following brachioplasty procedure, you will stay with us in hospital, either for the day or more commonly overnight, just so we can make sure that you're comfortable and due to slightly decreased mobility of your arms, we want to make sure that you're getting around okay. You will have dressings or tape on for the first week to two weeks and then you'll come back and see myself for a wound check and dressing change. You'll see your consultant again around six weeks and again around 12 weeks. You will have compression garments to wear for the first six weeks.
Preferably, we ask you to minimise the movement of your arms. So when you're resting to have them elevated around heart level and not to extend them more than about a 90 degree angle. We do want you to be able to move your shoulders around so that you don't get a stiff or frozen shoulder. You'll go home if you're staying overnight the next morning and we will give you a phone call follow-up as well.
My name is Gillian Bates and I live in Sidcup. Six months ago, I had an arm lift, which I paid for privately.
Well, I've had loose skin on my arms since I was a late teenager. So, it impacted in ways where I had to wear bigger clothes because my arms wouldn't fit in the smaller ones. And so the rest of my clothes are baggy. I had no confidence. So I couldn't wear short-sleeved tops. I've never been able to do that. So it's made a huge difference to me having it done.
I've had two consultations previously, with different consultants in different establishments, and I wasn't happy with the surgeon. So I didn't go ahead then. But I've had surgery with Benenden Healthcare before, at the hospital, and I was really happy with the care that I got at the hospital itself. And so, I just decided to look up to see if they did cosmetic surgery and they did. And so I looked up some of the surgeons and I met with Simon Mackey and I was really happy with him, and that's why I went ahead with the surgery.
I wanted to make sure that it was going to be safe and that the environment was clean and I was happy with the consultant, really, mainly.
My surgeon was Simon Mackey and my care nurse was Kate Comrie. And then I had other nurses after the surgery, and they were all excellent. They really answered all the questions that I wanted to know the answers to, really friendly and made me feel very comfortable throughout the whole process.
I had two consultations prior to having the surgery just to make sure that I understood what I was going to be doing and what could happen if anything went wrong. So they prepare you very well to make sure you totally understand what you're letting yourself in for, if you want to put it that way! But I was very happy with how they explained things and the process of the healing as well. That's very important for me taking time off work, so I wanted to know what the process was for that.
Well, I've had previous surgery in Benenden Hospital and it is a stunning area. The hospital itself is clean, it's a lovely hospital and makes you feel very comfortable with very welcoming staff.
So I was taken into a private room and then I met with the Anaesthetist. That was probably the only worry that I had, because I really don't like cannulas. They go in your hand and I find that excruciatingly painful. So he listened to what I had to say and then he gave me a little bit of gas and actually, because of the surgery, they needed to put it in my foot rather than my hand anyway. So I was really happy with that and it made a significant difference for me that I was comfortable to go into the actual theatre already. And I had no other worries because all of the other questions had been answered. So I was prepared for it.
I was given medication and bandages and recommended things to buy that would help, like compression garments. And then I had several appointments with Mr Mackey and Kate, the nurse, afterwards to make sure everything was going really well. So, yeah, very happy with the care and aftercare as well as before the operation as well.
Significant. I wouldn't be sitting here now with my arms out if I hadn't had it done. And then hopefully people will see the before and after photographs as well. So you can just see how huge a difference and what a huge difference it's made.
Well, I would say that if you're considering having an arm lift, I would do it sooner rather than later. I'm 62 now, and I wish I'd done it years ago. So if you're worried about the recovery, the recovery really wasn't too bad. It's a couple of weeks of really not being able to do very much at all and then you might have painkillers to start off with, but you don't need them a couple of weeks after that. And so you just have to be really careful about what you do. So, mine's now six months in and I've got complete movement in my arms. I've never ever worn a short sleeve top before. So it's just huge for me that I can sit here in front of a camera and be interviewed looking like this. So, yeah, it's quite a significant difference for me.
Clinical Nurse Specialist in Plastics and Cosmetic Surgery
Kate is the Clinical Nurse Specialist in Plastics and Cosmetic Surgery at Benenden Hospital.
Consultant Plastic Surgeon
Mr Macdonald's clinical interests include breast reduction surgery, abdominoplasty or tummy tuck, body contouring, brachioplasty or arm lift.
Consultant Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeon
Mr Mackey's clinical interests include breast reduction surgery, mastopexy or breast uplift, abdominoplasty or tummy tuck, brachioplasty or arm lift.
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