What Is Hip-Up Surgery?
"Hip-up" surgery is generally understood as liposuction that lifts the buttocks. In fact, however, as the figure below shows, the term "hip" should properly refer to the flank area above a woman's pelvis. So a procedure that lifts the buttocks should really be called a "buttock-up."

During thigh liposuction, the buttocks are usually treated at the same time, and treating the hips as well gives a more beautiful outer line running from the flanks above a woman's pelvis through the buttocks to the outer thighs. A woman's pelvic outline usually has a hip bulge and an outer-thigh bulge, making it look like a violin, so it is called a violin deformity.
Hip-up surgery is a procedure that turns this violin-shaped outline into a single rounded line.
When the buttocks are treated, the procedure needs to remove the ILB (inferior lateral buttock), the lower outer part of the buttock shown in the figure above. This keeps fat from bulging out beyond the panty line and gathers the buttocks toward the center.


The photos above show a patient who had her thighs and buttocks treated at another clinic, felt that her buttocks had sagged, and visited Venus Clinic for a so-called "hip-up," that is, a "buttock-up" procedure.
Her buttocks looked saggy and lacked volume, and the lower part of the buttocks was in fact drooping downward. These photos show the revision surgery performed to remove fat from the ILB and the T (outer thigh) to achieve a buttock-up and improve the outer thigh line.
In the rear-view photos, the buttocks became smaller but gained volume, the crease under the buttocks became noticeably shorter, and the sagging of the lower buttocks was considerably reduced. In the side-view photos as well, the sagging of the lower buttocks decreased, so the buttocks appear lifted. In other words, a buttock-up was achieved, and the back line running from the waist to the buttocks changed into an S-line.
However, because this was a revision of thigh liposuction and not much fat remained, the difference is unfortunately not dramatic.
The photos below are before-and-after photos of lifting sagging buttocks and raising the crease under the buttocks.
Applying this kind of procedure, it is also possible to treat people whose buttocks are uneven, with one side sagging.
In the photos below, the left buttock has a depression and is smaller. In such a case, fat grafting is used to fill the depressed area, and the crease under the right buttock is raised. After surgery, the buttocks became fairly similar in size.
[Dr. Jung, Director, Venus Clinic]
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