Meet the Team Behind This Evidence Review

Body and skin assessment after weight loss · skin laxity and quality · evidence review

Dr. Ke He is Deputy Director of the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital and head of its skin and laser aesthetic service — and she is the lead physician of this site. A core specialist formerly at the Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery Department of Xinqiao Hospital, affiliated with Army Medical University, she has worked on the clinical front line in skin laser and injectable aesthetics for more than 20 years, serving over ten thousand patients.

She does not prescribe or manage weight-loss medicines, and nothing on this site describes a service of that kind. Her part of the assessment is the skin: how much laxity there is and where, how much of the appearance is loose skin as against the shape of what lies under it, and how likely the skin is to retract at all. She is candid that a device produces only a modest change in skin quality and removes no skin, so where there is skin to excise she says so and refers, and where the honest answer is that weight has not yet stabilised she says that first and asks the patient to come back rather than planning anything.

Clinical focus

• Assessment of skin laxity and quality after major weight loss, by area
• Separating loose skin from the shape of the tissue beneath it
• Skin-directed treatment where laxity is mild and no skin needs removing
• Honest referral for surgical assessment where skin has to be excised
• Reporting what the evidence supports for this subject and where it is thin

Academic roles & achievements

• Member, Laser Medicine Group, Chinese Medical Association Plastic Surgery Branch
• Member, Facial Rejuvenation Group, Chinese Medical Association Plastic Surgery Branch
• Member, Chongqing Plastic Surgery Quality Control Center
• Published 5 papers, holds 5 national patents, and introduced 2 new clinical techniques

Centre leadership · surgical standards

Dr. Shaoliang Wang is Director of the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team he provides the surgical perspective and the tertiary-hospital backstop — the assessment when an operation is the honest answer, and the hospital-level care for the rare complication that needs it.

For a patient who has lost a large amount of weight, that system is what makes the assessment checkable: a documented preoperative assessment where an operation is considered, hospital anaesthesia and intensive care support in the building for the complications that make these operations serious, and a review schedule that continues after surgery rather than ending with it.

Clinical focus

• Center leadership and multidisciplinary case review
• Surgical assessment when an operation is the honest answer to descent or excess skin
• Hospital-based care for the rare complication that needs theatre-level management

Aesthetic surgery · body contouring and skin excision

Dr. Tongchun Mao is an aesthetic surgeon within the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team his role is refinement and honest referral: he is the person who says so when an operation will do better than an injectable or a device.

Within this team his role is the surgical question: how much skin there is to remove, where the scars would fall, whether the result justifies them, and whether the patient's weight is stable enough for the plan to hold. He says plainly that an operation removes skin rather than weight, and that the medical management of weight remains with the prescriber rather than moving to the operating theatre.

Clinical focus

• Aesthetic surgical assessment and refinement of contour and asymmetry
• Honest referral when surgery outperforms a course of injections
• Shared case planning within the four-physician team

Dermatology · skin quality and healing

Dr. Yongbo Jia is a dermatologist within the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team his role is medical skin assessment — diagnosing and managing pigment and barrier conditions, and treating skin that a device or an injection has irritated.

His is the assessment of the skin itself: its quality and elasticity after a large loss, whether a change in the skin is explained by the weight loss or needs a diagnosis of its own, and how a wound is likely to heal. In a patient whose nutrition may still be recovering from rapid weight loss, that assessment is part of what decides whether an operation should be planned at all.

Clinical focus

• Medical skin assessment behind injectable treatment plans
• Diagnosis and management of pigment and barrier conditions
• Dermatologic care of skin after irritation or a delayed reaction