Event Overview

Edinburgh, June 2009: Over 120 UK Plastic Surgeons attended the Massive Weight Loss Body Contouring (MWLBC) Symposium in London last month to watch live surgery and discuss the latest developments in Body Contouring, an important emerging field of Plastic Surgery. The event was organised and sponsored by ETHICON, ETHICON ENDO-SURGERY and MENTOR, all divisions of Johnson & Johnson Medical Limited.

Obesity is one of the UK’s biggest health challenges. Almost 1 in 4 adults in England are currently obese, and if this trend continues by 2050, 9 in 10 adults will be overweight or obese. The cost of overweight and obese individuals to the NHS is estimated to be £4.2 billion and is forecasted to more than double by 2050 (ref: www.dh.gov.uk).

With the increased volume of bariatric surgery taking place and the success of this procedure, surgeons are increasingly seeing patients with excess skin following weight loss. Body Contouring procedures to remove this excess skin and ‘recontour’ the body are now taking place in approximately 25-30% of post bariatric patients and Plastic Surgeons are expecting this trend to increase in the future aligned with bariatric surgery volumes.

This expected increase in demand for post bariatric Body Contouring procedures is a challenge for the NHS and much of the first day of the Symposium focused on how effective Patient Pathways could be established for these procedures.

The Symposium was held at The Royal Free Hampstead Trust, one of the UK’s leading plastic surgery units. The two day educational Symposium was chaired by Professor Peter Butler, Consultant Plastic Surgeon and Dr Peter Rubin, Founder and Director of the Life After Weight Loss Body Contouring Program. The expert speaker panel included: Dr Alex Clarke, Consultant Clinical Psychologist; Mr Shaw Somers, Consultant Specialist Upper GI & Bariatric Surgeon; Mr Afshin Mosahebi, Consultant Plastic Surgeon; Majid Hashemi, Consultant GI & Bariatric Surgeon and Patrick Breen, Consultant Anaesthetist.

The Symposium featured live surgery led by Dr Dirk Richter from Dreifaltigkeits Hospital, Germany, who performed a Lower Circumferential Body Lift with Scarpa lift and an autologous gluteal augmentation. The patient was a 45 year old female who had had gastric bypass surgery 14 months ago and lost over 100kg in weight.

During the procedure Dr Richter used PRINEO® Skin Closure System, the latest wound closure technology from ETHICON, to close the skin having eliminated the subcuticular layer of closure. The ETHICON ENDO-SURGERY Harmonic Scalpel was used throughout the procedure to minimise blood loss and reduce thermal damage to tissue.

Mr Afshin Mosahebi, Consultant Plastic Surgeon, Royal Free Hospital, said, "The event exceeded all our expectations and stimulated many positive comments and much debate amongst the participants."

This is the second MWLBC Symposium sponsored by ETHICON & ETHICON Endo-Surgery and is a reflection of the company’s commitment to delivering world class education in Plastic Surgery.

To find out more about this MWLBC Symposium, please email: