132 pounds removed in marathon tummy tuck

[Celebration]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11881076/

Surgeons in Spain used cranes and ropes in 9-hour operation

Updated: 9:19 p.m. ET March 17, 2006

MADRID, Spain - Spanish surgeons using cranes and ropes removed a 132-pound mass of fat and liquid from the abdomen of a middle-aged woman in the procedure known as a tummy tuck.

Francisco Javier Gabilondo, chief of plastic surgery at Hospital Cruces near the Basque city of Bilbao, said Friday the operation was "more spectacular than it was difficult."

The nine-hour procedure was performed last week, and the name of the patient was not released. She is in her 50s.

Gabilondo said she suffered from morbid obesity and until now had to sleep with the fatty mass — known as an abdominal apron — placed beside her on a table.