Excess Skin following Bariatric Surgery

What is excess skin? So the proteins collagen and elastin make up your skin's elasticity. Following the surgery patients lose weight quite rapidly as a result of their stomach being reduced drastically in size. Consequently their body size will shrink significantly and the production of collagen and elastin in the skin cannot keep up with this and therefore they may develop excess skin as a result. Some people will develop a lot of excess skin while some will only develop a a little and some will develop no excess skin. There are some factors that will increase your risk of excess skin after the surgery. These include your age, as you naturally age you continue to lose collagen. Smoking, as the amount of toxins in cigarettes damage the collagen and elastin production. The size you were before you had the surgery, so being in a larger body will stretch the skin further and so there will be more skin once you've had the surgery and your weight starts to reduce. What surgery you have, so having a gastric bypass which has quicker weight loss initially compared to a sleeve which is a little slower and genetics as some people are genetically predisposed to excess skin. How do I get rid of it? So the best thing to help reduce the likelihood of excess skin is making changes prior to you having your surgery. So try and quit smoking before you have the operation, try and reduce the size of your body and lose some weight naturally through your diet and movement before the surgery. Think carefully about which procedure you want to have and then following the surgery you should keep up with your dietary advice including having sufficient protein and keeping hydrated. Ensure that you move in some format every single day and you should consider taking collagen supplements. However it must be acknowledged that there is no solution to reverse the effects of excess skin completely other than having skin removal surgery. This is very very difficult to get funded through the NHS and in some trusts it's impossible and therefore many people will pay privately to have their skin removed. Consequently we would advise people who are considering bariatric surgery to really think carefully about how it would be living with excess skin both physically and psychologically. People can experience significant mental health difficulties in relation to their excess skin and this can limit them from leaving the house, doing the things they want to do, going the places they'd like to go and seeing the people that they want to. If this is something you think would be hard for you to manage and you're considering bariatric surgery we would suggest speaking to your GP or bariatric clinician.