Obesity, Weight Loss, and Facial Plastic Surgery

Obesity is an increasing problem in today's patient population. Obesity creates well-documented physiologic effects on local tissues, including proinflammatory states, impaired microvascular circulation, and changes to the extracellular matrix. These cellular level changes lead to the potential for impaired wound healing. Increased adipose tissue leads to changes in the facial structure with predominantly increased thickness of the superficial fat, and inconsistent findings on deeper fat pad volumes. The rising popularity of injectable weight loss drugs has created new challenges for the facial plastic surgeon.