Quality of life and body image before and after body contouring surgery- a case study

Excessive skin in the lower body following massive weight loss is very common, negatively impacting physical and
psychosocial health. Very few studies exist that investigate the quality of life and psychological outcome after body
lift surgery. We present a 20 year old male patient with complaint of excessive skin in the lower body after massive
weight loss, during the 6 months. We undertook low body -lift in patient with flabby skin over the lower abdomen.
We evaluate the quality of life and body image to understand the physical-psychological implications before and
undertake body contouring surgery. The patient took part in examinations on voluntary basis and completed
the prospective pre-post study about the quality of life and body image, for which were applied: the Body Shape
Questionnaire (BSQ) and the WHOQOL-BREF tool. Comparing BSQ before and after one month postoperatively,
this score decrease of 50%, which talking about a 50% improvement on his opinion about body shape, and on
WHOQOL-BREF tool we found an improvement in all domains: Physical health by 10.8 points, Mental health by
20 points, Social relations by 16.25 points and Environment: by 3.1 points. In our young patient circumferential
abdominoplasty produces was useful surgical option, producing aesthetically good results and improving quality
of life and body image, giving importance to interdisciplinary treatment.
Key words: Massive weight loss, circumferential body contouring, quality of life, body image