Dr. Dennis Hurwitz: Total Body Lift
he struggle to lose weight and maintain its loss crops up in most conversations today. The National Center for Disease Control says Americans are heavier than ever recorded before; figures from the National Center for Health Statistics indicate that 64% of Americans 20 and over are overweight or obese (20-25% overweight). And ironically, successful weight loss itself, on a large scale, can pose a problem.
Besides the myriad diet programs and philosophies, the chock full health clubs and the thousand and one books on weight loss, 141,000 people in America alone elected gastric bypass surgery in 2004. $117 billion is spent by Americans annually on weight reduction products and services; the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicates that 300,000 annual deaths are attributable to poor diet and inactivity.
You would think that triumph over overweight would bring happiness and bikinis, but, in the words of Jennifer Budinger, who had bypass surgery in 2000 and lost nearly 200 lbs., What I had thought would be the end of a lifelong struggle proved to be the beginning of a new, and equally restrictive problem.
Budinger s problem was large folds of excessive skin, which may sounds trivial in comparison with the weight she lost, but she describes how her stomach hung in such huge folds that she suffered frequent rashes under it and how she had to cover her body with clothes despite the radical weight loss. She had been looking forward to swimming, but found it wouldn t be possible with the grotesque sagging skin and all this was true despite the fact that she had been working out regularly to firm up as she lost the pounds.
A nurse who had been through bypass surgery herself told Budinger that sometimes an abdominoplasty is covered by insurance and gave her the name of Dr. Dennis J. Hurwitz, a Pittsburgh-based plastic surgeon who developed the Total Body Lift (TBL). This is a comprehensive single-stage procedure that reshapes the breasts, chest, arms, thighs, hips, back, waist, abdomen and knees after weight loss and changes caused by aging and multiple pregnancies.
For more than 60 years surgeons have treated skin laxity with individual operations, and repeated visits increase both the risks and costs involved; Hurwitz found a unified approach. He began his career as assistant professor of plastic surgery at the University of Philadelphia in 1977 and has worked full-time for 27 years to correct deformities and improve people s appearance.
Dr. Hurwitz developed Total Body Lift surgery to allow people to take the final step to normalcy; an operation is performed on the upper and lower body in one procedure. This comprehensive single-stage procedure takes off 10-30 pounds of excess skin in a 7-10-hour surgery. Patients are hospitalized 24-72 hours, followed by home bed rest with brief walks for three days, and then they resume light activity. It is four to six weeks before normal daily activities, and patients must wear elastic support garments while healing. The resulting level and symmetrical scars can be hidden mostly by underwear.
This is not casual surgery; it is performed all at once or in two separate surgeries and requires massive blood transfusions. There is the risk, as with all operations, of infection and danger from anesthesia. It requires not only the scientific expertise of a surgeon but the ability to be a sculpture of the human body, and it requires honesty and support in dealing with patients who have often already been through a great deal on the path to weight loss.
When Budinger consulted him, Dr. Hurwitz told her that stomach surgery alone would not result in what she wanted, that she would need a full lower body lift. With her husband s encouragement, she eventually had three surgeries and described her feelings at the end as finally free of all the restrictions my body had placed on my soul.
Not everyone is eligible for this procedure. The perfect candidate for single-stage Total Body Lift is 30 years old, with no chronic medical or psychiatric problems. The ideal person exercises regularly, is aerobically fit and highly motivated. Patients can t be smokers or extremely obese (contour improvement is modest unless the weight problem is addressed first). The general rule is that candidates should be under the age of 40 and under 200 lbs.
Dr. Hurwitz s care in qualifying patients appears to have paid off; he published an outcomes analysis in 2004 showing that none of his TBL patients had to be readmitted to the hospital because of complications. He expects use of this procedure will spread because of client demand, and is working with his hospital to establish a center of plastic surgery excellence to prepare TBL patients for surgery through nutritional and educational services. The program also will provide them with a place to stay after surgery for direct access to physical therapy, lymphatic drainage, therapeutic massage, etc.
His recently published book, Total Body Lift, is highly technical, but it has a good glossary and a wealth of patient statements and images that dramatically illustrate the change that can occur; anyone contemplating such surgery would be wise to read it.
The book also conveys Dr. Hurwitz s human concern for his patients and his sensitivity to the motivation and desire that drive them to approach TBL. His patients attest to his humanity; Budinger concludes that he is a fine, fine surgeon, a gifted artist and a lovely human being.
To learn more, check out:
www.hurwitzcenter.com or www.totalbodyliftsurgery.com.
0 Comments