Arm Reduction | Cosmetic Surgery in Mexico | Tijuana Plastic Surgery

About the Author

Dr. Manuel Gutierrez came from a family of doctors. His father was a professor at the UABC medical school for 25 years in the area of infectious disease. His mother is a M.D. in the area of family practice. The passion for medicine and patient care runs in the family, and because of this Dr. Gutierrez enrolled himself in medical school at the age of 18. At this time, he told himself - “Some day I will be a plastic and reconstructive surgeon”.

Arm Reduction in Mexico

There are several reasons why patients look for an arm reduction in Mexico. Either genetically they are born with thick arms, or they gain and loose weight and now they have a lot of excess skin. There are basically 3 types of patients that will inquire this procedures: patients with fat arms and good tone of skin, patients with medium arms and some loosens of skin in the upper 1/3 of the arm, and patients with fat or skinny arms with a lot of lose skin form the elbow to the arm feet. Every one of these cases will require a different approach.

Patient #1

Fat arms and good tone of skin: The patient that has genetically a large deposit of fat in the arms; they have a good tone of the skin, no stretch marks, and have no signs of sagginess of the skin. This patient is ideal for liposuction; the procedure will eliminate the number of fat cells in the area and will give smaller arm.

Patient #2

Fat deposit and stretch marks in the upper 1/3 of the arm. This is a patient with a moderate fat deposit special concentrated in the upper third of the arm; it has stretch marks, and has sagginess in the upper 1/3 of the arm. This patient will need liposuction and a mini arm reduction. The mini arm reduction will consist in an incision located horizontally in the upper part of the arm close to the arm pit. The idea is to remove the skin and place the scar in the inner arm. The incision usually heals well, sometimes excessive sweating around the wound can get macerated and partially open. This area closes by it self and leaves a placement hidden scar, patients must wear a compression vest for 2 weeks.

Patient #3

Fat or skinny arm and a lot of skin from the elbow to the arm pit. This is the patient that has gone through some sort of major weight loss or has genetically large arms, either by loosing weight of the aging process loose weight or loose a lot of tone of the skin.

At evaluation they have excess skin from the elbow up to the arm pit and you are able to pinch couple of inches of loose skin. This patient usually requires liposuction and a vertical scar from the elbow up to the center of the arm pit. As a plastic surgeon we deal with the question of how much skin to remove. If you are aggressive and leave your scar very tight the result of the scar will be wide, if you are very conservative at the time the swelling is down the patient will complain of having more loose skin, so I like to give my patient the chance to choose visible scar or some loose skin? You got the answer!