BIRMINGHAM, AL — In a live webcast from UAB Hospital on June 20, UAB plastic surgeon John A. Anastasatos, M.D., will perform a “tummy tuck” procedure to eliminate excess folds of skin from a patient who lost a significant amount of weight after undergoing a gastric-bypass operation.

This will be the third in a series of operations that UAB has broadcast live on the World Wide Web. It is scheduled for noon-1 p.m. The surgery may be viewed in real time at www.or-live.com.

Viewers will have the ability to email questions directly into the operating room for an on-camera response by the surgical team. Anyone may view the live broadcast, or watch the archived procedure at a later date. Physicians who sign up for it may receive continuing medical education credits.

When their fat melts away after weight-loss surgery, many patients are left with sagging folds of skin that do not shrink to conform to the person’s new body shape. Anastasatos, an assistant professor of surgery, said that the excess skin often causes hygiene problems, skin irritation, pain and infection.

Benefits of the “tummy tuck,” or abdominoplasty, go beyond the physical recontouring of the body. “Taking care of the excess skin not only changes their body but has a very potent psychological effect – it changes the way these patients take care of themselves afterwards,” he said. “They are much more likely to be diligent about maintaining the weight loss that they put so much effort into.”

UAB surgeons perform a high volume of abdominoplasty procedures on patients from around the country.