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New York Times reporter Sarah Lyall live-tweeted the surgery of Paul Mason who had vast amounts of excess skin removed after he lost over 300kg. Excess skin is often a problem after severe weight loss, and it won't simply go away on its own.
In the case of Paul Mason, the weight loss was so dramatic that he literally had sheets of skin that were no longer needed. A team of plastic surgeons worked to remove the skin in a way that left minimal scarring and didn't pose any severe health risks to Mr. Mason.
Warning: Some of the pictures below are graphic in nature.
Four plastic surgeons are working on his abdomen, to remove a huge apron of skin hanging way down.
— Sarah Lyall (@sarahlyall) April 28, 201524 pounds of loose skin pic.twitter.com/QNkdwR7sNt
— Sarah Lyall (@sarahlyall) April 28, 2015One problem is the extraordinary amount of blood vessels that need to be cut and sutured or stapled.
— Sarah Lyall (@sarahlyall) April 28, 2015An average square inch of skin contains 20 blood vessels, each of which contains a substantial amount of blood. The scale of the skin removal means that Paul is losing a huge amount of blood, but also the area's the blood was servicing. However, this is still one of the most dangerous parts of the procedure.
Rags used to mop up the blood in the surgery. pic.twitter.com/sBVP3vBUmj
— Sarah Lyall (@sarahlyall) April 28, 2015The surgeons get to work on the next area, Paul mason's right leg. pic.twitter.com/Wi1b5yqIXK
— Sarah Lyall (@sarahlyall) April 28, 2015In the below tweet we can see a doctor holding a mound of skin with hooks before it is cut off.
(This one is particularly graphic): Excess skin, still attached to leg, the next part to be removed. pic.twitter.com/QscoBbLwP8
— Sarah Lyall (@sarahlyall) April 28, 2015
The good news is that the surgery went well, and Paul can now fully enjoy the benefits of his remarkable weight loss.
Update: Success! Paul Mason doing well after 9 1/2 hours of surgery in which surgeons removed 48 lbs of loose skin.
— Sarah Lyall (@sarahlyall) April 29, 2015
Read more:
Weight loss surgery good for skin and hair
