SERI Surgical Scaffold as an Adjunct for Circumferential Abdominoplasty and Lower Body Lift

SUMMARY: Patients who have undergone massive weight loss typically have poor-quality skin and fascia and thus are prone to experiencing recurrent skin laxity, bulges, and poor scarring after body contouring efforts, even in the hands of experienced surgeons. Moreover, this challenging patient population often has nutritional deficiencies and concomitant medical problems, which may lead to delayed or suboptimal wound healing. A silk-derived biological scaffold (SBS) and its facilitation of autogenous tissue generation may be viewed as a qualitative reinforcement of the superficial fascial system. Therefore, it may help support and stabilize a superficial fascial system that has been weakened by obesity and other factors. When employed in body lifting for patients with massive weight loss who desire long-lasting aesthetic results, it may represent a paradigm shift that has the potential to solve at least some issues that plague this patient population. In the present case of circumferential abdominoplasty and lower body lift, this silk-based bioresorbable scaffold was implanted in one side of the patient’s body but not the other. Throughout the 7-month follow-up period, the patient and her husband (who were blinded as to which side received the SBS) and the author consistently observed more favorable results for the SBS side, which included greater postoperative comfort, better shape, higher buttock position, less recurrent laxity, and less descent of the scar.