Temporal and demographic factors influencing the desire for plastic surgery after gastric bypass surgery

An increasing number of gastric bypass patients desire plastic surgery after massive weight loss. However, the timing of interest and factors influencing the desire for body contouring have not been studied.

Two thousand five hundred one gastric bypass patients were surveyed. Outcome measures included years since gastric bypass, laparoscopic versus open procedures, body mass indexes, income, prior plastic surgery, desire for body contouring, and need for a payment plan. Multiple variables were assessed by univariate and multivariate analysis.

Nine hundred twenty-six patients (817 women and 109 men; mean age, 47.2 years) responded. Eight hundred eleven patients were considering body contouring: 685 patients (84.5 percent) desired body contouring after gastric bypass and 126 wanted no further surgery (15.5 percent). Desire was inversely related to age (p < 0.0001), years since gastric bypass (p = 0.052), and open versus laparoscopic gastric bypass (p = 0.04), but was two times more likely in women (p = 0.008) and divorced versus married individuals (p = 0.04). Patients desiring a payment plan were younger (p = 0.0210) and had lower post-gastric bypass body mass indexes (p = 0.007). Age was inversely related to desire for a payment plan but directly related to the inability to afford or lack of desire for body contouring (p = 0.02).

A majority of post-bariatric surgery patients desire body contouring; younger, divorced, female patients who had laparoscopic gastric bypass voiced the strongest interest in body contouring. Thus, efforts should be directed toward facilitating body contouring in this subpopulation because they appear the most motivated.