Excess skin

A 35-year-old woman with excess abdominal skin and sagging breasts due to weight loss.

The same woman six months after undergoing an abdominoplasty and breast lift.

Excess skin is an effect of surplus skin and fat after expansion during pregnancy or adipositas and following a massive and considerable weight loss. Further reasons can be aging effects, genetic disorders or an intentional expansion for skin reconstruction.

Methods to remove excess skin by surgery include abdominoplasty, breast reduction and brachioplasty.

A unique or very rare case of excess skin in a human is described in this Youtube video about an Australian boy born in 1993 with a great excess of skin, which hung about him in many wrinkles. As he grew towards adulthood, he "grew into" his skin, as into an oversize garment, and the wrinkles flattened out. His condition is compared to Shar Pei dog puppies, which have this condition also; the boy and Shar Pei puppies in their skins both have 100 times the normal level of hyaluronic acid.

Literature

• Trude Staalesen: Assessment of Excess Skin and Outcome of Body Contouring Surgery in Post Bariatric Patients. Department of Plastic Surgery, Institute of Clinical Sciences at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg 2014 (pdf)
• Mammoreduction - The goal to shrink the woman's breasts [1]