What to Do With Excess Skin After Weight Loss Surgery

Thursday, 03 June 2010 08:43

One of the best things about going through bariatric surgery- large amounts of weight loss- is also a burden for those that have lost a significant amount of weight and now have great amounts of excess skin.

Excess skin may be an embarassing topic to some, but nonetheless, many weight loss surgery patients go through a daily struggle of hiding their excess skin, unable to wear the clothes they always dreamed about before surgery. Excess skin is also a health risk- it often makes patients constantly uncomfortable and more susceptible to rashes and other skin ailments caused by heavy folds of skin.

Surgery to remove the skin is usually necessary for many patients, and while it may be a costly procedure, patients are still left wondering what happens to their skin after it has been removed. In the majority of cases, the skin is considered medical waste and disposed of properly by their attending plastic surgeon, but Empowher.com recommends a different solution for all the excess skin- donating it to someone in need.

According to the women's health website, the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation is the only organization in the United States that accepts living skin donations. Skin donations are usually accepted from deceased donors, but surgeons are finding a need for thicker and larger amounts of skin for other procedures, including hernia repair and breast reconstruction. Originally, skin transplants were developed for burn victims in order to replace and grow skin lost from a high-degree burn.

Blood type matching isn't required for living skin donation and donors are not required to take any types of preparatory drugs before donating. In most cases, living skin donation will not affect the current surgery to remove the skin and fees are not charged by the donor or the organization, as accepting money for tissue and organs is illegal.

If you are considering surgery to remove excess skin and are interested in donating it to the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, follow the steps on their Living Skin page.