Post-Bariatric Body Contouring: Procedure Selection, Staging, and Patient-Centred Outcomes

Body contouring after bariatric surgery and other forms of massive weight loss is an increasingly important part of reconstructive and aesthetic care. Even after substantial weight reduction and weight stabilisation, redundant skin and soft-tissue excess across the abdomen, lower trunk, thighs, and upper arms can affect mobility, hygiene, clothing fit, physical activity, comfort, and body image. Procedures such as panniculectomy, abdominoplasty, lower-body lift, brachioplasty, and thighplasty can address these concerns, but the choice and sequencing of procedures must account for the patient’s health, weight stability, anatomy, goals, and tolerance for risk.Despite growing clinical experience, evidence guiding patient selection, timing, staged versus combined procedures, and long-term outcomes remains heterogeneous. Studies often use different outcome measures and follow-up periods, making it difficult to compare techniques or determine which approaches provide the greatest functional and quality-of-life benefit for particular patient groups. A focused synthesis of clinical evidence is therefore needed to support consistent, patient-centred decision-making in this distinct population.This Research Topic aims to bring together clinical and translational evidence on body-contouring surgery after bariatric surgery or massive weight loss. It will examine how patient characteristics and surgical strategy influence procedure selection, staging, perioperative risk, complications, revision, recovery, functional improvement, contour durability, and patient-reported outcomes. The focus is on evidence that can inform clinical choices and expectations, rather than on body contouring as a general aesthetic field.We welcome original research, comparative clinical studies, prospective cohorts, systematic reviews, and evidence-based technical reports. Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:•Patient selection and timing: weight stability, comorbidities, nutritional status, risk stratification, patient goals, and readiness for surgery.•Procedure choice and sequencing: panniculectomy, abdominoplasty, lower-body lift, thighplasty, brachioplasty, and staged or combined approaches after massive weight loss.•Safety and revision: comparative complication profiles, perioperative optimisation, reoperation, revision strategies, and factors associated with recovery and durable results.•Functional and patient-reported outcomes: mobility, physical activity, hygiene, comfort, daily functioning, body image, satisfaction, and validated quality-of-life measures.•Long-term effectiveness: durability of contour and functional benefit, follow-up methods, and outcome measures that support comparison across procedures.By concentrating on post-bariatric and post-massive-weight-loss body contouring, this Research Topic seeks to build a clinically useful evidence base for procedure selection and staged care. Submissions should address this patient population and its body-contouring decisions. Facial and breast surgery, general microsurgery and free-flap reconstruction, burn reconstruction, broad wound-healing biology, cell-based regenerative therapies, and digital-planning workflows are outside the proposed scope. Topic editors: Simone La Padula, Fernando Rosatti, Concetta Errico Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83988/post-bariatric-body-contouring-procedure-selection-staging-and-patient-centred-outcomes