Written by Fulvio Urso-Baiarda co-founder and plastic surgeon at Eterno 360, Eton, Berkshire

I am often asked by patients if they might be suitable for a mini arm lift. Many women - maybe the majority of my patients - feel that they don’t really want or need the whole scar of an arm lift, but just want to be a bit firmer and more toned than they currently are, and wonder if this ‘mini arm lift’ they keep hearing about might be the answer.

Why don’t I offer a mini arm lift?

I am often asked by patients if they might be suitable for a mini arm lift. Many women - maybe the majority of my patients - feel that they don’t really want or need the whole scar of an arm lift, but just want to be a bit firmer and more toned than they currently are, and wonder if this ‘mini arm lift’ they keep hearing about might be the answer.

It sounds great: an arm lift procedure with a scar just inside the armpit. What’s not to like?

Well, quite a lot when you get down to it. A mini arm lift is a procedure that I rarely (possibly never) offer. Here’s why.

It may seem that you have spare skin under your armpit, and that when you pull up on it your arm looks better, but you actually only have spare skin there when your arm is pointing downwards. When you put your arm up above your head, that spare skin completely vanishes. We do need to put our arms above our heads quite often: every time we brush our hair, lift something off the top shelf, whatever it may be. It’s helpful to think about what you are aiming to achieve with an arm lift - most patients actually want to narrow the circumference of their arms. Just like you wouldn’t narrow the circumference of a pair of trousers by taking up their length, you need to narrow the circumference of the arms by taking in the “seam”.

So, what would the outcome of a mini-arm lift be? In my view one of two things generally happens: the scar stretches and the original problem recurs, except now you also have a wide scar; or (worse) you end up with a restricted range of movement as a result of the surgery. Neither is the path to Zen-like contentment, and I warn my patients away from this approach. For those who want to achieve an improvement in their arms without a standard arm lift, I generally recommend CoolSculpting.

Incidentally a thigh lift is a different prospect. Although most patients also benefit more from a full thigh lift (with a scar at the “seam”) rather than mini thigh lift, it is possible to do a minimal access thigh lift in some patients when it is suitable. The procedure is not intrinsically flawed in the same way as a mini arm lift because we don’t put our legs up behind our heads that often, unless you are really good at yoga!