Results of Arm Lift Surgery

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When you wake up from your arm lift surgery your wounds will be dressed with bandages and your surgeon will tell you how long these need to remain on. After a while you will need to change these and make sure that your keep them clean to allow your wounds to heal successfully. Your arms will certainly feel lighter and the skin around them may feel a little tight, but you will get used to this feeling as they heal and your skin naturally regains some elasticity. You will also probably feel quite exhausted from your arm lift surgery so you will certainly have to take it easy for a while.

Depending on the type of stiches used by your surgeon you will either have to have them removed at a later date or they will dissolve by themselves. The type of stitches will alter the immediate appearance of your arm wounds. You might find that you are shocked by the appearance of the stitches and some people say that they fell a bit like Frankenstein for the first couple of weeks until the stitches are removed! (If you have dissolvable stitches then they will probably be more internalised and less obvious). You may also find that the sites of the stitches become quite itchy (as scabs form around the wounds) and that the area swells up a lot around 3 days after your surgery.

The appearance of your arm lift surgery wounds

A lot of the swelling and bruising that will develop around the area of your wounds will be underneath the bandages that your surgeon will put on straight after the surgery. However you will probably find that a large amount of this is still present when you remove the dressings and (whilst this can look a little scary) you should not allow it to alarm you as swelling and bruising is all part of the recovery process. If your swelling and bruising is extensive or causing you anxiety then you should consider talking to your surgeon, nurse or GP to ask for advice. They will be able to suggest some treatments to help reduce these effects such as taking anti-inflammatory painkillers (like ibuprofen) which will reduce the swelling or using arnica cream (which acts to reduce the area of bruising around your arms).

Your scars will naturally change colour as they heal but it is generally found that their final appearance will usually be the same as how they appear about six months after your surgery. There are various treatments and methods that you can use to try to reduce the appearance of your scars (such as keeping the area of skin well moisturised, taking vitamin E and eating a healthy diet) but the final appearance will vary from person to person due to differences in natural healing ability as well as these other factors. For example, some people may develop pink, purple or white scars or you might suffer from keloid and therefore end up with angry looking, raised red scars. In addition, if you spend a lot of time in the sun this will change the colour of your scars due to the effect of UV radiation.

How long do the results of arm lift surgery last?

The results of arm lift surgery will last for many years providing you continue to look after your arms by taking regular exercise, eating a healthy diet and committing to maintaining a stable body weight. If you have arm lift surgery as a young adult then some sagging of your arm skin may return later in life due to a natural reduction in your skin firmness that occurs with age. However by living a healthy, active lifestyle and taking a healthy balanced diet you can minimise this effect.

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