Body
What is an Arm Lift?
What is an arm lift? Also called brachioplasty, it is surgery to improve upper-arm contour by addressing excess skin and, when appropriate, excess fat. Darren M. Smith, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City, explains the central tradeoff: removing loose skin can improve shape, but creates a permanent scar.
In this episode.
Episode summary
What is an arm lift? Also called brachioplasty, it is surgery to improve upper-arm contour by addressing excess skin and, when appropriate, excess fat. Darren M. Smith, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City, explains the central tradeoff: removing loose skin can improve shape, but creates a permanent scar.
Originally published November 18, 2020. Device examples and adjunct treatments discussed in the recording reflect practice at that time.
Key takeaways
🔎 Fat and skin concerns
Fat and loose skin are different concerns. The episode describes liposuction for fat and direct removal of excess skin as distinct parts of treatment.
📏 Arm lift incisions
A standard arm lift often involves an incision along the inner upper arm, while an extended procedure can address tissue toward the armpit and side of the chest.
🩺 Mini arm lift
A mini arm lift uses a shorter incision for selected, more limited skin concerns; it is not interchangeable with a full arm lift.
🩹 Scar planning
Scars may fade but remain permanent. The expected location and extent deserve discussion before surgery.
🧩 Laxity and treatment options
Dr. Smith discusses less invasive tightening for selected mild-to-moderate laxity and explains why greater skin excess may need excision.
Questions this episode answers
Can liposuction replace an arm lift?
It depends on what is causing the concern. Liposuction removes fat, while an arm lift directly removes excess skin. The recording explains why skin quality and the amount of laxity matter when comparing approaches.
Will the scar disappear?
No. Dr. Smith explicitly describes the arm-lift scar as permanent, even when it heals and fades. Scar appearance varies, and the improvement in contour must be weighed against the incision required.
🔗 Related information
Compare current information about arm lift surgery, arm liposuction, and BodyTite, or schedule a consultation.
Educational information, not individualized medical advice. Surgical and device treatments have risks, and results and recovery vary. Show notes updated September 30, 2026.
Original show notes
Board certified NYC plastic surgeon Dr. Darren Smith looks into this powerful procedure to get rid of excess arm skin and fat. We also explore a new twist on this classic procedure to improve muscle definition as well.
Read the conversation.
[00:08] I'm board certified New York City plastic surgeon, Dr. Darren Smith, and this is plastic surgery before and after. Your source for the real deal about plastic surgery procedures, news about trends in aesthetic medicine, and candid sessions with industry insiders. We hope you enjoy today's episode. What is an arm lift? Also called a brachioplasty. An arm lift is a procedure that is designed to improve the aesthetic appearance of the arm. An arm lift procedure classically involves maneuvers to decrease the amount of skin laxity of the arm and also procedures to remove fatty excess of the arms. In a standard arm lift procedure, for example, liposuction is usually performed first to remove fatty excess and as we've addressed in Earlier episodes liposuction is a procedure in which small incisions are made numbing solution is introduced through those incisions and then those incisions are used to access the treatment area and a long thin instrument called a cannula is used to suction excess fat out of the treatment area. Following the removal of fatty excess with liposuction in general some form of incision is made the exact design of which varies and we'll get to in a moment but the point for now is that a incision is made and this is used to directly excise skin excess from the arm so that when the incision is closed you'll have a tighter more defined more aesthetically pleasing shape to your arm after having removed the fat with liposuction and the skin with direct excision with an incisional approach. In terms of the kind of incision that is used for brachioplasty, as I mentioned, there are a few possibilities. The most common one runs from approximately the armpit to the elbow on the inner surface of the arm so that the resulting scar is hidden when the arms are at the side. There is also an extended brachioplasty procedure for those with significant skin excess in the axular armpit and in this case that incision is extended through the armpit and onto the side of the chest wall.
[02:43] and on the other extreme for those that don't have a lot of skin laxity we can perform what is known as a mini arm lift which is where the incision instead of running down the length of the arm is much smaller and is hidden within the armpit and actually runs perpendicular to the long axis of the arm. As you can imagine from these descriptions a classic brachioplasty does result in a scar of significant length. These usually do go on to heal very well over time and can become significantly faded. However, they do result in a long permanent scar that one has to be comfortable with before committing to this kind of procedure. And as is true of many forms of plastic surgery, this is essentially a trade-off of scar for shape. In some individuals, as we've mentioned in other episodes, we can use a minimally invasive skin tightening procedure instead of formal skin excision and this leaves extremely minimal hard to see scarring and for this specifically we use a radiofrequency skin tightening device called body tight and again I'd encourage you to check out earlier episodes where we discuss this in more detail but the body type procedure is really designed for those with mild to moderate skin laxity of the arms and for those with more severe skin laxity an excisional procedure really is necessary to get the results that are desired.
[04:21] It used to be that brachioplasty just addressed the fatty excess and skin laxity of the arms. However, there is now really nice technology that exists to also enhance the muscle tone of the arms. And I'm referring to Emsculpt Neo, which we've also addressed in a recent episode. But essentially, this is a technology that uses combination of high-intensity focused electromagnetic energy, or HIFEM, in addition to radiofrequency energy, to build muscle mass. in the treatment area by an average of 25%. So this will really enhance the results of a brachioplasty very nicely. If you have any other questions about brachioplasty or other aesthetic procedures that you'd like to hear us address on the show, please reach out at www.askdrsmith.nyc. That's a fantastic Facebook community that I personally moderate and participate in.
[05:25] and we'd love to see you there. That's www.askdrsmith.nyc. Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe, share the show, and head over to darrensmithmd.com for more real world plastic surgery talk.
Sources and context.
Original Captivate episode. Original release date: 2020-11-18. The recording is the source for the transcript and episode discussion. Later context in the written summary is identified separately.
Behind the conversation.
Darren M. Smith, MD, FACS