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CC BY 4.0 · Revista Brasileira de Cirurgia Plástica (RBCP) – Brazilian Journal of Plastic Surgery 2025; 40: s00451807273
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1807273
Artigo Original

Outcomes of Pregnancy in Patients Submitted to Postbariatric Fleur-De-Lis Abdominoplasty

Article in several languages: português | English
Renato Lazarin Ricci 
1   Área de Cirurgia Plástica, Departamento de Cirurgia, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Campinas, SP, Brasil
,
Paulo Kharmandayan 
1   Área de Cirurgia Plástica, Departamento de Cirurgia, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Campinas, SP, Brasil
,
Davi Reis Calderoni 
1   Área de Cirurgia Plástica, Departamento de Cirurgia, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Campinas, SP, Brasil
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Financial Support The authors declare that they did not receive financial support from agencies in the public, private or non-profit sectors to conduct the present study. Ensaios Clínicos Não. | Clinical Trials None.
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Abstract

Introduction

Obesity is a growing condition leading to a concomitant increase in bariatric procedures. The anchor-line or fleur-de-lis abdominoplasty improves body contour by excising redundant skin and subcutaneous tissue. Pregnancy implies abdominal distension, both musculoaponeurotic and cutaneous. However, the knowledge of its relationship with abdominoplasty remains scarce, especially regarding the potential negative effects on esthetic outcomes or abdominoplasty-related increases in gestational complications.

Materials and Methods

We conducted a retrospective study on patients submitted to postbariatric fleur-de-lis abdominoplasty from 2012 and 2023 who subsequentially got pregnant. We assessed their medical records, photographic archives, and answers to an online questionnaire.

Results

The study included seven patients, all previously submitted to gastric bypass. Although one patient suffered a miscarriage, the remaining subjects had successful pregnancies. Six patients noticed an altered pattern of abdominal growth. Five pregnancies were full-term, and one was preterm; the delivery route was cesarean section in five patients and vaginal labor in one subject. Two newborns were small for their gestational age. The reported esthetic issues included a new onset of striae in five patients, scar stretching in four, and excessive skin worsening in six subjects. The pre- and postpregnancy scores decreased from 8.7 to 5.8 points. One patient reported no changes in the esthetic outcomes.

Conclusion

Although pregnancy had some influence on abdominoplasty esthetic outcomes, the impairment was not severe. Pregnancy and delivery in patients previously submitted to postbariatric fleur-de-lis abdominoplasty did not present a higher complication rate.

Keywords

abdominoplasty - bariatric surgery - body contouring - obesity - pregnancy - surgery - plastic

Authors' Contributions

RLR: data analysis and/or interpretation, data collection, investigation, methodology, writing – review & editing, and visualization; PK: final manuscript approval, supervision, and visualization; and DRC: data analysis and/or interpretation, final manuscript approval, conceptualization, study conception and design, project management, methodology, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing, supervision, validation, and visualization.




Publication History

Received: 02 September 2024

Accepted: 06 February 2025

Article published online:
30 April 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Bibliographical Record
Renato Lazarin Ricci, Paulo Kharmandayan, Davi Reis Calderoni. Desfechos da gestação em pacientes submetidas à abdominoplastia pós-bariátrica em âncora. Revista Brasileira de Cirurgia Plástica (RBCP) – Brazilian Journal of Plastic Surgery 2025; 40: s00451807273.
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1807273
 

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