The American Society of Plastic Surgeons' 2001 plastic surgery statistics estimated that 7.5 million people in 2001 had cosmetic surgery. The top five procedures were nose reshaping, liposuction, eyelid surgery, breast enlargement, and facelift.

Men had 23% of the nose reshaping, 17% of the liposuctions, 15% of the eyelid surgeries and 8% of the facelifts. One thing that was unique to men was the breast reduction for gynecomastia.

Considering only body contouring there were 48,663 liposuctions, 18,548 treatments of gynecomastia, 1,940 tummy tucks, 31 buttock lifts, 97 thigh lifts, and 15 upper arm lifts.

It can be seen, by far, that liposuction was the most popular body contouring surgery. The other procedures such as tummy tuck and buttock lift, were probably done for people who had a lot of weight loss resulting in loose folds of skin.

Men are fortunate in usually having thicker skin than women, which resists, better, wrinkling and stretch marks.

Pictures # 1 & 2 show a gentleman who has had a tummy tuck and thigh lift. He had a difficult time cleaning himself before the surgery was done.

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Pictures # 3 & 4 show a gentleman who had excision of gynecomastia. In this case liposuction was done for the soft fat and excision for the hard breast tissue located deep to the nipple area.

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Pictures # 5 & 6 show a gentleman who had liposuction of the chest as well as the abdomen.

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All these procedures permanently remove tissue. If the patient does not gain weight his new shape after surgery is permanent. However, the remaining fat cells in the body can enlarge with weight gain. In men there is more fat cells around the intestines under the stomach muscles and the "beer belly" can get worse with weight gain pushing out the abdomen even though the fat overlying the muscles has been sucked out. A patient who does not exercise and has very weak abdominal muscles will still have a protruding, rounded abdomen after liposuction simply because the abdominal contents push outwards.

Even though more women than men are concerned about their body shape there is an increasing interest among men to look better and feel better about themselves. The cost of surgery for body contouring can start from $1,500 and go up depending on the number of areas treated. Be sure to see pictures of examples of patients who have had procedures from the doctor you consult. I think it will be helpful to also speak to some patients who have had the procedure. For further information you can call Dr. Danny Oh, M.D. at (604)226-1133 Ext 1367.