Excess skin due to massive weight loss is the special topic of this edition/issue. The aim is to focus on articles relating to patients’ experience of problems with excess skin, which is a relatively new group of patients seeking help from reconstructive plastic surgeons. A question that has arisen in connection to this is whether they are entitled to health care on medical indications. Can their problems be considered medical and not exclusively cosmetic?
Obesity is a worldwide problem affecting 650 million individuals, as reported by The World Health Organization, with a major impact on health.
The preferred treatment is still obesity surgery or bariatric surgery, as being the most successful intervention to provoke weight-loss and the associated improvements of the metabolic syndrome as improving diabetes and cardiac diseases.
Regardless of which method is chosen for obesity, surgical or non-surgical interventions, there is one negative result of massive weight loss and that is the development of excess skin.
Historically, excess skin has been considered purely a cosmetic problem however, with more research describing problems from excess skin in postbariatric patients, a more objective picture of their quality of life has evolved. More research is needed and therefore this edition/issue is dedicated to research on excess skin after massive weight loss.