Good Morning,

I am scheduled for Brachioplasty next week. During my first consult the surgeon told me that I would not need drains, is this common or is it purely a judgement call by the surgeon? He also told me that since my loose skin goes all the way to my elbow I would probably end up with dog ears. I just can't seem to find any pictures of what dog ears look like. Is this common with patients that have a tremendous amount of loose skin? Thanks

Hi. Drains are a personal preference...I do not use them on my brachioplasty or inner thigh lifts.

Your doc should show you pics of dog ears and tell you when/how he will correct them...again, everybody has a different approach here.

eugenia,

try going to makemeheal.com the TT forum and look for 'dog ears', they really do look just like their name.

not sure what prevents them.

Thanks so much for the link, I will take a look.

Eugenia

Here's a thread I made on makemeheal.com, asking about dog ears. It should explain.

Tummy Tuck, Abdominoplasty Message Boards - Dog ears? - Plastic Surgery, Cosmetic, Forums, Chats

Great, thanks so much!!

are the dog ears caused by the drains hanging ?

Mindy

are the dog ears caused by the drains hanging ?

Mindy

I think it's where some skin is pulled tighter than the skin around it, if that makes sense. Think of it in terms of cloth. If you cut a big hole out of the center of a square of cloth and try to stretch the cloth and sew it together, you'll wind up with raised areas at the ends of the mended spot. That's because there's more cloth at those areas than there is in the area that had the cloth cut out, so it kind of bunches up where it meets the mended area. From what I understand, that's basically what happens with dog ears.