Womens Health in the News

The tummy-tuck or abdominoplasty which is the correct medical term for this type of surgery is the removal of excess fat and skin from the lower and middle abdomen and is a procedure in which the abdominal muscles of the stomach will be tightened. It is a procedure that can help dramatically change and reduce the appearance of those with problems of a protruding stomach, however it does leave a scar and the severity of it will depend on the surgeon involved and also the problem that initiated the surgery and extent of the surgery itself.

Who are the best candidates for surgery?

The best candidates for a tummy-tuck are men and women who are in excellent overall health but who suffer from the problem of large fatty deposits or loose skin on the abdomen that doesn’t respond to exercise or diet. The surgery is particularly useful to women who have gone through pregnancies and the skin of the stomach has stretched along with abdominal muscles past the point of them being able to return to normal.

Before you have any extensive surgery of this type you should consider all the options and talk with the surgeon about your expectations of the surgery, while the tummy-tuck can enhance your appearance, it might not change the way you look to match what you think of as ideal.

Discussing your surgery

During your first consultation the surgeon will give you a full medical to assess your overall health as all surgery does have its risks, if you are a smoker you will be advised to stop smoking as this can not only interfere with anaesthesia in general but it also stops you healing as quick after the surgery.

During this assessment, the surgeon will determine the amount of fatty deposits in your abdominal region and assess your skin tone; the surgeon will be frank with you at this point and will point out what the expectations from the surgery can be. You should also ask any questions at this time about the surgery and recovery afterward.

Depending on where the fat amounts are located on your abdomen, the surgeon might suggest that you have what is called a partial abdominoplasty; this is usually suggested if the fatty deposits are limited to the area below your navel. The surgeon may also suggest that you could get more benefit from a complete abdominoplasty and liposuction which will remove fatty deposits from the hips.

The procedure

The procedure will normally take anything between two and five hours depending on the amount of surgery required, the surgeon would make a long cut from one hipbone to the other just above the pubic area, with a second incision being made to free the navel from the surrounding tissue.

The skin will then be separated from the abdominal walls and the vertical muscles are pulled closer together and tightened before being stitched in place. This will give the patient a firmer abdominal wall and a narrower waist size. The flap of cut skin will then be stretched down and any excess removed before being stitched in place and a new navel will be created.

After the surgery

For the first few days following the surgery you will of course be sore and swollen and this is controlled by pain medication, depending on the type of surgery you had and the extent you could be released from hospital within a few hours or it could take up to three days. The stitches on the surface will come out in about five to seven days and the inner ones which will have the ends protruding will come out around two to three weeks later.

It may however be several weeks before you feel like your old self again and this will depend on your fitness and overall level of health before the surgery. Scars will lessen with time and fade but it could take anything from nine months to a year for them to flatten out and lighten in colour and be considerably less noticeable.