Brachioplasty (Arm Lift) in Uberlândia, Brazil

Brachioplasty is the operation that removes excess skin from the inner arm. The indication arises when skin is left over — the complaint patients describe as skin hanging when they raise the arm — typically after major weight loss, and also with ageing in those whose skin has poor elastic quality. It is the second most cited region after the abdomen among people who have lost a lot of weight. What the surgery delivers is contour and an end to chafing and difficulty with clothing; what it charges is a long scar, and that trade has to be clear before any decision.

They are different problems and do not substitute for one another. Liposuction treats fat: it works well when the arm has localised volume and the skin still has enough elastic quality to retract afterwards. Brachioplasty treats skin: when what is left over is the skin envelope, removing fat does not improve it and may worsen it, because it takes away the volume that was filling the area and leaves the skin looser still. In practice the two components often coexist, and liposuction can be combined with brachioplasty in the same operation — the meta-analysis of complications published in 2022, gathering 29 studies and 1,578 patients, records that adjunctive liposuction reduced the incidence of certain complications. What defines your case is the examination of the arm.

The operation is performed under anesthesia, with the patient supine and the arms out. The excess to be removed is marked beforehand, standing. The excision removes a strip of skin and fat from the inner arm, and closure is done in layers, with attention to the fascia in order to reduce tension on the skin — tension on the suture is what most favours the scar widening later. Where indicated, liposuction is performed in the same operation. The resulting scar sits on the inner arm, running from the armpit towards the elbow, over a length proportional to the excess removed: the more skin there is, the longer it is. Where the excess is small and confined to the upper arm, there is a short-scar variant limited to the armpit. The exact placement of the incision is a technical decision with a measured consequence: in the same meta-analysis, a more medial incision was associated with higher risk of complications.

It is visible, and that is the most important information on this page. The scar sits in an area that shows with short sleeves, and it does not disappear: it matures and fades over months, but it remains. In the published series, abnormal scarring — wider, thicker or hypertrophic — was the most frequent complication of brachioplasty, described in around 10% of cases in the 2022 meta-analysis. The same meta-analysis records reintervention for aesthetic reasons in around 7%, largely scar revision. Factors that weigh against: smoking, a personal or family history of keloids, tension on the suture and a high BMI. Follow-up includes guidance on silicone, sun protection and massage according to the stage. Anyone choosing this surgery is deciding that the scar bothers them less than the loose skin — it is a trade, and that is how it is presented at the consultation.

There is no scarless brachioplasty. What exists is brachioplasty with a shorter scar, limited to the armpit, indicated when the excess is small and concentrated in the upper arm. If the excess extends to the elbow and the short scar is chosen anyway, the result tends to fall short over the lower half of the arm, and dissatisfaction appears later. Non-surgical treatments — radiofrequency, microfocused ultrasound and the like — act on mild laxity and do not replace excision where redundant skin is established. Promising otherwise would be selling what is not delivered. The examination defines which scenario you are in.

Six months of stable weight is the usual criterion, and it is the same one the post-weight-loss body contouring studies adopt as an inclusion criterion. The reason is not bureaucratic: operating before weight settles means operating on a body that is still going to change, and regain after surgery is common. Body mass index comes into it too, and for brachioplasty it weighs in a documented way — in the published series, a higher BMI is associated with more healing complications. Weight and BMI are therefore assessed together, and the target is defined individually at the consultation. In some cases the advice is to keep losing weight before scheduling surgery.

The operation is performed in an operating theatre with an anesthesiology team, and the modality is defined at the pre-anesthetic assessment. The approach is discharge the same day, a few hours after the operation, once pain is controlled and you have recovered from the anesthetic — and always accompanied. Whether you go home the same day or stay overnight is always assessed case by case, according to the extent of the surgery, the anesthesia, whether other procedures are combined and your pre-operative assessment — and it is defined before the surgery, not on the day.

The restriction of movement in the first days is usually greater than most people expect, and it is worth arranging help at home for tasks that require raising the arms — washing hair, reaching shelves, driving. In the first days the arms are kept elevated at rest, which reduces swelling of the hands and forearms. A compression sleeve is advised for weeks, with the duration defined by the team. Returning to desk work usually happens between the first and second week; work involving carrying weight or raising the arms overhead calls for longer, generally four to six weeks. The bulk of the swelling settles in the first weeks, and the scar keeps changing over twelve to eighteen months.

Light walking begins early, in the first days, and is part of preventing thrombotic risk. Lower-body exercise is usually cleared sooner, at around three to four weeks. What takes longer is upper-body training: chest, back, shoulder and biceps work pulls directly on the operated area and is usually cleared from six to eight weeks, in stages and according to the reviews. Returning earlier accelerates nothing and increases tension on the scar, which is precisely what is to be avoided in the first months.

The meta-analysis published in 2022, with 29 studies and 1,578 patients, provides the reference figures. Abnormal scarring was the most frequent, at around 10%. Recurrence of laxity was around 8%, wound dehiscence around 7%, seroma around 6%, infection around 4%, nerve-related complications around 2.5%, lymphedema or lymphocele around 2.5%, skin necrosis or delayed healing around 2%, and hematoma around 2%. Surgical reintervention for aesthetic reasons was around 7%, and for non-aesthetic reasons around 1.6%. These come from observational studies, with no large clinical trial available, and they serve to frame the conversation rather than to predict your case. What reduces risk is careful screening, stable weight, stopping smoking, and not combining more procedures than the case can carry.

It can, and often is — but there is a measured limit. A multicentre study published in 2026, with 1,182 post-weight-loss contouring patients and 2,665 procedures, found complication rates of 3.6% with a single procedure, 5.1% with two, 20.2% with three and 22.4% with four. In other words: combining two carried a risk similar to one, and the jump comes from the third onwards, mainly through wound dehiscence. The same study describes the criteria under which combining proved safe: BMI up to 30, weight stable for at least six months, corrected micronutrient deficiencies and a favourable clinical status. That is why what is combined in your case is decided at the consultation, and not by the convenience of resolving everything at once.

Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis is used in every patient, not only in those at higher risk. It has two parts. The mechanical one is routine: anti-thrombosis compression stockings and intermittent pneumatic compression of the legs, used during the operation and in the immediate postoperative period, until early ambulation. The chemical part is individualised: how long enoxaparin is used is defined by the Caprini score, a validated instrument that adds up factors such as age, body mass index, expected length of surgery, hormone use, smoking and personal or family history of thrombosis. None of these measures eliminates the risk, which is why asymmetrical pain or swelling in a leg, shortness of breath and chest pain need immediate assessment.

The skin removed does not come back. What remains subject to change is what is left: significant weight variation, ageing and loss of elastic quality can bring some laxity back over the years — in the published series, recurrence of ptosis appears at around 8%. Keeping weight stable is the factor within your control that most protects the result. The scar, in turn, keeps maturing for about twelve to eighteen months, and how it looks in the first month is not how it will look.

Surgical fees are always private — Dr. Lorena does not operate through health insurance. What is possible, when a genuine, documented medical indication exists — such as excess arm skin after major weight loss with a documented functional impact, on clinical grounds — is to guide the patient and attempt to engage her health plan for partial coverage of the hospital admission, which may include items such as the operating room, the daily rate and materials, according to the rules of her contract. Authorisation is the insurer's decision and cannot be guaranteed in advance. What the team does is assemble the clinical documentation supporting the request.

Where there is a reconstructive or functional indication — such as excess skin after major weight loss with a documented impact — the Brazilian public health system does provide for it. Surgery for purely aesthetic purposes is not covered. Dr. Lorena is a plastic surgeon on the public staff of the Hospital de Clinicas of the Federal University of Uberlandia (HC-UFU) and a preceptor on its plastic surgery residency, and she operates on SUS patients there. The route, however, does not run through this site or the private practice: referral has to come through the public network, with that service queue and criteria. This site does not mediate that access.

We do not publish isolated before-and-after pairs. Resolution 2,336/2023 of the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine allows results to be demonstrated, but only within a set that also includes unsatisfactory outcomes and the complications described in the literature, across different body types, age ranges and stages of healing, and with no editing of the images (art. 14, II). An isolated pair of photos does not meet those requirements and also implies a guaranteed result, which the same resolution prohibits (art. 11, XII). At the consultation the expected outcome is discussed from your own anatomy.