Arm Lift Scars

Each of those areas is named for the same reason. The shoulders heal with a thickened scar. The upper back heals with a thickened scar. The chest heals with a thickened scar. The upper arm, including the underarm, heals with a thickened scar. A brachioplasty crosses the upper arm and the underarm, so it sits in the part of that list the page ties to the arm. The shoulders, the upper back, and the chest are on that same healing list even though the excision described here is the arm and the underarm. The page does not say the operation cuts the chest or the upper back. It says those surfaces heal thick, and it names them in the same sentence as the upper arm. Hypertrophic and keloid stay the two names for that thickened scar. The page does not split them into two treatments.

The thickened-scar list and the closure rules answer different questions. The list says where skin on this page tends to heal thick: shoulders, upper back, chest, upper arm, and underarm. The closure rules say how much skin comes off the arm and the underarm, and how hard that closure is pulled. A thick scar is the healing pattern. A prominent or visible scar is the result the page ties to tension and to taking the maximum skin. One can occur on these body areas even before a brachioplasty. The operation is what the page says can compound it.

Read as a sequence, the decisions already on the page are these. Contour is the reason to take the maximum skin. Extensive underarm skin is the reason increased tension may be necessary. A prominent scar is the risk attached to that maximum removal. Avoiding excessive tension is the limit placed on the closure so the scar does not become the visible one. None of those four cancels another. A plan can aim for contour, accept some tension to clear the underarm, and still be told not to cross into excessive tension.

Liposuction changes the skin problem before that closure is planned. With the fat still present, the skin is draped over that volume. After the fat is suctioned, the page says the slack increases, because the skin and the fat were both part of the fullness. The excision is then closing a looser sheet than the one that existed before liposuction. That is why the page says removal of slack is compounded by removal of fat, and why the visible scar is the cost of eliminating the fullness rather than a separate operation.

An arm lift, also known as brachioplasty, reshapes the under portion of the upper arm from the underarm region to the elbow. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons uses that description, and it also says the operation reduces sagging skin, tightens the underlying supportive tissue, and reduces localized pockets of fat. The fat removal and the skin excision on this page match that account. This page does not name the elbow. It also does not take the society's comments on exercise, weight change, or heredity as its scar account. The hypertrophic or keloid list, the tension rules, and this 71-year-old stay with this page.

MedlinePlus says a keloid is a growth of extra scar tissue where the skin has healed after an injury, and it lists cuts from surgery among the injuries that can lead to one. That sentence matches the keloid named beside the hypertrophic scar on this page. MedlinePlus also describes steroid injections, freezing, laser, radiation, surgical removal, silicone, sun protection, and age or ancestry patterns. This page does not state those. Here, hypertrophic and keloid remain the page's two names for the thickened scar.