What Keeps Combination Surgery Safe?
These days, the world of plastic surgery is advanced, customizable and efficient. With the right surgeon at the helm, your aesthetic goals can be achieved with the latest techniques, procedures and treatments on your ideal timeline. And when your goals require more than one procedure, there’s a significant chance your plastic surgeon can perform a combination surgery. From the menopause makeover to the mommy makeover, these combination options have skyrocketed in popularity over the last decade. In 2024, tackling more than one procedure in one surgery is a common practice by the experts. And for good candidates, is a safe option to address multiple areas at once. But what allows them to be so safe? And what should we know before scheduling our consultations!
What Makes Combination Surgery So Popular?
“Combined procedures afford a great benefit to patients in that they have one recovery period, which translates into less time recovering overall,” explains Nashville plastic surgeon Kent Higdon, MD. “Cost-effectiveness can be another benefit for patients undergoing combined aesthetic plastic surgery procedures.”
These procedures particularly appeal to patients who have undergone significant changes in more than one area of the body.
“One particular group of patients who often benefit from multiple procedures is our weight loss group of patients who have undergone bariatric surgery procedures or have successfully lost weight with diet and exercise,” Dr. Higdon adds. “Weight loss medications, such as GLP and GIP receptor agonists, have made a huge impact on patients, and many have had significant weight loss in this manner as well. In doing so, these patients often have deflational changes with loose skin that requires aesthetic plastic surgery to address and correct.”
How Do Surgeons Keep Combination Surgeries Safe?
Mitigating risk factors comes from understanding the potential complications of combination surgeries.
“Adding procedures should be carefully undertaken to ensure outcomes and safety,” Dr. Higdon notes. “Our research looked at the safety of abdominoplasty and combined procedures in 2015, publishing our results that showed that increasing BMI levels, increasing age, and multiple combined procedures, among others, were predictors of complications after abdominoplasty.”
In 2024, an analysis of abdominoplasties performed by board-certified and board-eligible plastic surgeons had a notably low complication rate. They found no higher risk of complications when an abdominoplasty was combined with another procedure or performed alone.
“Smart patient risk assessment and combination procedure selection is key,” Dr. Higdon says. “We also saw an overall complication rate for these procedures that was extremely low at 2.1%, underscoring the importance for seeing a board-certified plastic surgeon for the best in your aesthetic surgery experience.”
A qualified board-certified plastic surgeon will take a comprehensive look at your health, examining you for potential risk factors like age, high or low BMI, smoking history, and blood clot history.
Getting Ready for Combination Surgery
The best thing you can do to prep yourself for a combination surgery is to prioritize your health and stay in communication with your surgeon.
“Combined procedures require recovery for more than one procedure by definition, and healthy patients thrive after combined procedures,” Dr. Higdon explains. “No crash diets, no new supplements. Let your doctor know if any new medications or new health conditions arise prior to surgery.”
If you’re not at peak health, there are ways you can address your risk factors and make yourself a better candidate for surgery.
“In combination surgeries, this can be even more important, as the surgeries tend to be longer, and the recovery can also be a bit longer, depending on the case,” Dr. Higdon explains. “For example, increasing BMI and diabetes add some element of risk in combined procedures. Improving your BMI and controlling blood glucose (HbA1C) to a healthier level can be a good way to get ready for your surgery and minimize risks for unwanted issues after surgery and to improve your cosmetic result in many cases, as well as your recovery.”
When your surgeon gives you the green light and your surgery is scheduled, take the time to plan for the support you’ll need during your recovery. Especially if you live in a multi-floor building!
Choosing a Surgeon is Half the Battle
Meeting your aesthetic goals requires a board-certified plastic surgeon that’s able to build a treatment plan collaboratively with you. By combining your vision and their years of experience, your surgeon should design a bespoke approach that takes both your goals and your risk factors into account.
“It takes the expertise afforded by many years of training that board-certified plastic surgeons experienced in aesthetic surgery bring to ascertain that balance between the benefits and risks of combination surgery, which they would discuss at length prior to surgery with their patients in a shared decision-making process,” Dr. Higdon notes. “Even some patients who are young and have risk factors may not be a good choice for multiple procedures and resulting longer surgery required to perform that combination of procedures. There is a balance you and your surgeon will discuss to ensure that you get your best result.”
