Gastric Sleeve Vs Mommy Makeover (Body Contouring): Shape Your Body

Gastric Sleeve Vs Mommy Makeover: Both are different types of procedures. A gastric sleeve is intended for weight loss while a mommy makeover is a body contouring procedure.

Gastric sleeve surgery makes you look thin while a mommy makeover procedure makes you look young, curvy, and confident.

Women may sometimes need a mommy makeover after gastric sleeve because the excess fat loss can result in loose skin in the areas around the arms, breasts, and buttocks, hanging belly, and facial drooping.

What is a Mommy Makeover?

As the term is self-explanatory, the mommy makeover is a series of multiple surgeries on different parts of the body to reshape or model body contour according to a person’s desires.

This surgery was initially introduced for women who lost their body contour after pregnancy. As in pregnancy and post-breast feeding, multiple changes occur in the patient’s body.

For this reason, the concept of mommy make-over was reintroduced after marked weight loss as occurs in people undergoing a bariatric surgical procedure such as a gastric sleeve.

The breasts are either augmented with implants or uplifted if sagging according to the patient’s will. A tummy tuck or Abdominoplasty is done for the anterior abdominal wall to give a slim and slender appearance to the belly women.

In pregnancy, the abdominal wall is stretched because of the growing fetus. Liposuction of the thigh and love handles are done to give better shape to patient contours.

These procedures are done after careful planning and lines are demarcated that guide the operating surgeon to plan the incision.

A mommy makeover is usually done as a day-case procedure. The patient is discharged home to recover before the next procedure is planned.

What is Sleeve Gastrectomy or Gastric Sleeve Surgery?

Gastric Sleeve is a type of less invasive bariatric surgery. It is primarily aimed to make a fat person lose weight. It also helps a person cure or treats his/ her obesity-associated medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia.

A gastric sleeve surgery may change a person’s looks but it has no role in body reshaping. Instead, the body contours are lost because of immense weight loss.

That is why a patient may require mommy makeover surgery for reshaping after a weight loss surgery.

A gastric sleeve is also called a metabolic surgery as it significantly improves the metabolic derangement in an obese person.

Components of the Mommy Makeover:

This is not a single procedure but a series of various procedures. These are tailored according to patient desires and needs.

The key components of a mommy makeover are:

Breast surgery:

Breast augmentation:

Breast augmentation is done to reshape the breasts, especially after pregnancy, breastfeeding, or weight loss.

In this case, silicon implants are used.

Breast uplift surgery:

Breast uplift is also called mastopexy. It is done to remove the excess skin so as to tighten the loose skin and tone the breast tissue.

Breast uplift is usually done after pregnancy and breastfeeding. Some patients may need it after marked weight loss as occurs after gastric sleeve surgery.

This is done with a planned incision to uplift the breasts.

For most people, surgery is the last option, breast augmentation diet pills and supplements may work and may be used as first-line.

Abdominoplasty or Tummy Tuck:

Abdominoplasty or a tummy tuck is done for two reasons. First of all, it is performed if the abdomen wall is sagging. Because of sagging skin fold is moist and is prone to infections, especially fungal infections.

Secondly, as in pregnancy, the abdominal muscles are lax and their elasticity is lost. This leads to a hanging and sagging tummy that requires a muscle tightening procedure in addition to panniculectomy.

Buttock augmentation:

In this procedure, buttock contour is augmented with the use of implants or fat deposition.

Liposuction

This is done in areas of the thigh to give a slimmer look from the legs side and a wider impression in the pelvic regions. Liposuction is performed with a specialized needle to remove the subcutaneous fats.

Botox injections:

These are done to give the patient a younger look. These injections are done in wrinkled areas such as the forehead and below the lower lid to remove wrinkles and improve the person’s appearance.

Vaginal Rejuvenation Surgery:

The vaginal wall is rejuvenated with the use of multiple procedures to tighten the vaginal wall.

Gastric Sleeve Vs Mommy Makeover:

The gastric sleeve is for weight loss and associated co-morbid medical conditions, whereas the mommy makeover procedure is for reshaping purposes. It has no role in patient comorbid resolution or weight loss.

Complications of Gastric Sleeve Vs Mommy Makeover:

Both procedures are invasive and carry some risks and side effects. Both gastric sleeve and mommy makeover have different rates of complications, and the types of complications also vary.

Complication risk and rates are highest in abdominoplasty compared to the other procedures in mommy make-over.

Complications of Sleeve Gastrectomy:

• Bleeding

There are two types of bleeding, intra-luminal and intraabdominal. The treatment plan depends upon the degree of bleeding and type of bleeding.

When bleeding is minor, it can be managed with clot-promoting techniques like Tranexamic acid injection or pills.

If bleeding is severe intra-abdominally then an open or laparoscopic approach will be needed. If bleeding is intra-luminal, then an endoscopic approach can be used to control bleeding.

• Infections

Infections can be managed with either oral or intravenous antibiotics if there is no intra-abdominal collection.

In the case of intra-abdominal collection, a surgical or image-guided approach will be required to drain the abscess.

• Hernia (port site)

Hernia can only be corrected by surgery. Some patients may also need a mesh to strengthen the abdominal wall.

• Recurrence

A recurrence of the disease happens when a patient does not comply with the instruction given by a nutritionist or primary surgeon. So the patient regains weight, this is considered a treatment failure.

Complications in Mommy Makeover:

Breast surgery

• Breast pain

As breast skin is heavily supplied by cutaneous nerves, when skin flaps are raised, these nerve ends are injured leading to pain.

The pain may be tingling, numbness, or shooting and may poorly respond to OTC pain medicines.

• Capsular Contraction

This occurs because of scar tissue contraction around the implant. That will lead to distortion of breast contour and alignment.

• Implant deflation

Another complication leading to distortion of breast shape and alignment is the rupture or deflation of the implant.

• Implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

One of the drastic complications related to implant placement is its association with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

• Infections

Every surgery has some risk of developing an infection. As breast tissue is composed mainly of fat tissue, because of less vascularity, the chance of infection in the presence of an implant is very high.

• Mal alignment

This can occur in patients undergoing uplift surgery. If the incisions are not properly planned, then malalignment may be noticed in the early postoperative period.

Abdominoplasty

The infection rate in abdominoplasty is highest compared to other procedures in Mommy makeover.

• Bleeding

This procedure requires massive dissection to raise flaps. That’s why the bleeding risk is relatively higher than in normal surgery.

Because of extensive dissection patients may need an intra-op transfusion. In this procedure, dissection is carried out in a subcutaneous plain which is why patients are prone to developing an infection.

The infection rates are higher because of poor blood supply to the area and because the skin and subcutaneous tissues are close to the external environment.

• Necrosis of skin flaps

Flaps that are too thin have reduced blood supply. In addition, raising flaps too much can also compromise its blood supply. The result is flap necrosis which may require another surgical procedure.

• Fat embolism

Fat embolism is a serious life-threatening complication not very often seen with abdominoplasty. But if this happens then the patient will need ICU admission and may require ventilatory support.

Liposuction complications:

• Fat embolism

This complication is seen because when fats are removed some of the fat lobules may travel through the injured vessels into the bloodstream ultimately leading to fat embolism.

• Seroma formation

This complication happens because of the oozing of blood into the subcutaneous plain during liposuction.

• Infections

The risk of infection is high in this case because of vascularity and seroma formation.

Botox injections

This is a toxin used to paralyze muscles. That is why it is administered with proper precautions because it has multiple side effects, including:

• Allergic reaction.
• Muscle weakness
• Eye drooping
• Respiratory Issues.

Complications of Vaginal Rejuvenation

Permanent loss of sensation

This is due to the disruption of sensory nerve endings leading to altered sensation, numbness, and tingling of the skin surrounding the vagina.

Chronic pain

This can occur because of injury to nerve endings or may be due to scar formation.

Scarring

The vaginal wall is composed of very delicate mucosa which can result in scar formation if not handled properly.

Varying results

Patient satisfaction may markedly vary depending on the desires of the patient.

In summary:

Gastric Sleeve and Mommy Makeover are two very different procedures. Hence, they can not be directly compared using a single parameter.

Gastric sleeve is a weight loss surgery that may alter the patient’s looks because of the loss of subcutaneous fats.

A mommy makeover is a body contouring procedure to make the person look younger with the help of implants, fat deposition in the buttocks, and liposuction.

The mommy makeover is intended to reshape a person’s body so as to have attractive looks.

The table below summarizes the key points comparing Gastric Sleeve Vs Mommy Makeover