Liposuction is a cosmetic surgery that can help you attain a leaner physique by eliminating fat from specific body locations. When liposuction is performed on areas with a great deal of fatty tissue, such as the thighs, abdomen, and buttocks, the results are most spectacular.
There are a number of factors that influence how long it takes to see the outcomes of liposuction. Both the amount of fat removed after surgery and the rate at which your body absorbs the fat are crucial variables. In addition, your overall health impacts how quickly you will experience benefits following liposuction. The best approach to assess whether liposuction is correct for you is to speak with a board-certified plastic surgeon who can walk you through all of the procedure’s intricacies.
You may find it difficult to obtain accurate information on the internet, so we are here to assist you in the following article by offering the most accurate and up-to-date information on how long it takes to see the benefits of liposuction. Blood clot symptoms after stomach tuck. Read on to learn more. about Preventing Blood Clots After Abdominoplasty
How Long Before You See Results Of Liposuction
Many people struggle with excess body fat every day. When a healthy diet and exercise fail to get rid of fat bulges, liposuction is often a good option to achieve their desired body contour. Liposuction can target many areas, such as the abdominal region, thighs and hips.
Unfortunately, some men and women may have unrealistic expectations for their liposuction procedure, and when their desired results are not immediately achieved, they often feel as though the surgery was not successful. Knowing what to expect after the procedure and following your plastic surgeon’s after-care instructions can help you achieve the desired results.
What happens after the liposuction?
After the procedure, you can expect to feel mild discomfort, and see bruising, redness and swelling. Prescribed medications can help ease the discomfort. You may be instructed to wear a compression garment to help reduce swelling and promote healing. Swelling usually starts to go down by the end of the first week but wearing the compression garments should continue until week four or as otherwise directed. Some degree of swelling may last for as long as six weeks, but within a few days, you should be comfortable enough to return to work.
Will I have scars?
During the liposuction procedure, small incisions are made in order to remove the excess fat cells. These incisions are small and made in inconspicuous areas whenever possible, so they are less noticeable. You should receive after-care incision instructions to care for them after the procedure. These instructions should help to ensure that the incisions heal with minimal scarring.
How can I help promote healing and good results?
While liposuction removes a certain number of fat cells in the treatment area for good, the remaining cells can continue to store fat and grow in size. Following a healthy diet, drinking plenty of water and participating in a regular exercise routine (once your surgeon clears you to do so) can help promote healing, maintain a healthy body weight and help you achieve your desired body contour after the swelling goes down.
Will I see results right away?
Chances are, you probably won’t see the results you want right after your procedure. If anything, for a short while you may feel as if you have gained weight or are looking larger in the area treated. While liposuction can remove up to 10 pounds of fat cells during a procedure, fluid retention and swelling can cause you to look bloated. As the swelling goes down, you can begin to see results.
You may also notice that some of your skin is loose in the area treated with liposuction. Loose skin can firm up over time. However, depending on a variety of factors, such as age or how much fat was removed, surgical intervention may be necessary to tighten up the skin. Every person is different and your plastic surgeon can talk with you about skin tightening as part of your body contouring procedure if warranted.
Depending on how much fat is removed, you can expect to see final results between 1-3 months after the procedure.
How do I maintain my new look?
It’s important to keep in mind that liposuction results are not necessarily permanent. While the fat cells are removed from your body for good, some fat cells still remain and can grow. It’s up to you to take good care of yourself so that you can enjoy your slimmer look for a long time. Eat a healthy diet, drink plenty of water and follow a regular exercise routine. You can begin simple walking soon after the procedure and within a few weeks be ready to begin a low-intensity workout routine and build up from there.
Liposuction can remove stubborn excess body fat and help you achieve your desired body contour, but it is essential to have realistic expectations and know that maintaining your new look long-term requires a commitment to a healthy lifestyle.
Signs Of Blood Clot After Tummy Tuck
Surgery is one of the major causes of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot that forms in the deep veins of your body, often in your leg.
Clots happen when blood thickens and sticks together. That can be a good thing when it prevents you from bleeding, but not so much when a clot forms inside your blood vessels. Sometimes, one can travel to your lungs. This is called a pulmonary embolism (PE), and it can be life-threatening if it blocks blood flow.
While a clot can form after any type of procedure, you’re more likely to get one if you’ve had major surgery, particularly on your abdomen, pelvis, hips, or legs.
Some specific operations that come with a high risk for DVT and PE are:
- Knee or hip replacement
- Peripheral and coronary artery bypass
- Surgery to remove cancer
- Neurosurgery
- Surgery on your abdomen
- Other major operations
Why It Happens
These and other surgeries raise your risk for DVT because you often stay in bed for long periods of time while you recover. When you stop moving, blood flows more slowly in your deep veins, which can lead to a clot. Other surgery–related factors that may increase your risk for blood clots include:
- How extensive or long the procedure was
- The way you had to be positioned during surgery
- The type of anesthesia used
You’re most likely to get a clot between 2 and 10 days after your surgery, but your odds remain high for about 3 months.
You may have a greater chance of DVT after surgery when you:
- Smoke
- Had DVT in the past
- Are overweight or obese
- Have close family members with DVT
- Are pregnant
- Have a disorder that affects your blood or veins
- Are older
- Use certain medicines, including birth control and hormone therapy
- Have specific types of cancer
During Surgery
Sometimes, the surgery itself can cause a blood clot. Long procedures where you’re lying on the operating table for many hours allow your blood to settle and pool, which makes it easier to clot. Major surgeries like cancer and heart bypass operations tend to take longer, which is one reason they’re higher risk for DVT.
Tissue, debris, fat, or collagen could get released into your blood system during an operation, making blood thicker around those particles. Blood clots can also form if your veins are damaged during an operation.
Surgeries that involve scraping or cutting into a bone, such as a hip replacement, may release substances known as antigens. These antigens trigger your body’s immune system and can lead to clots.
Only about half of people who get DVT have symptoms.
Let your doctor know right away if you have any signs of DVT or PE:
- Pain or tenderness in your leg
- Swelling or warmth in your leg
- Red or discolored skin on your leg
- Veins that stick out
- Shortness of breath
- Coughing up blood
- Sudden chest pain
- Painful breathing
If you smoke, quit. Work on getting rid of any extra pounds you’re carrying, too. Talk to your doctor if you need help with kicking the habit or losing weight.
How to Lower Your Chances for DVT After Surgery
While you’re recovering at the hospital, it’s important to keep your blood moving to lower your chances for blood clots. The DVT prevention plan your doctor makes for you might include:
Blood thinner medicines. These are also called anticoagulants. They make it harder for your blood cells to stick together and form clots. You take them by mouth, shot, or through an IV.
Doctors don’t prescribe blood thinners after all surgeries, because they can cause excessive bleeding. Your doctor will decide if they’re right for you. You can ask them to explain the benefits and risks.
Simple movements. These can improve blood flow. Depending on the type of surgery you had, your care team might suggest gentle exercises like:
- Leg lifts while you’re in bed
- Moving your feet in a circle or up and down about 10 times an hour while you’re sitting in a chair or lying in bed
- Squeezing your calf and thigh muscles regularly
If you got your hip or knee replaced, your doctor might have you start working with a physical therapist the day after surgery.
You might need to take pain medicine so you can exercise comfortably.
If you can’t exercise after major surgery, ask your doctor if someone on your care team should massage your lower legs and move your legs through range-of-motion exercises.
Getting mobile. A nurse will help you get out of bed to move around as soon as possible after surgery. It’s good for your blood flow.
Elastic compression stockings. Your doctor may recommend these to help keep your blood flowing and to stop it from pooling in your veins, which could cause clots to form. Compression stockings fit snugly and may feel uncomfortable at first, but you may get used to them after you wear them a few times.
Compression device. This type of gadget applies pressure to your legs to get blood moving and prevent clots. They have names like “sequential compression device” or “intermittent pneumatic compression” device.
Your care team wraps plastic sleeves around your legs, and a connected pump inflates and deflates them. Take the sleeves off before you walk somewhere (like to the bathroom) so you don’t trip and fall. Your care team can help you remove them if you need a hand.
How to Help Prevent DVT Once You’re Home
Follow these tips after you leave the hospital and start recovering at home:
If your doctor gave you blood-thinning medication (anticoagulants), keep taking it exactly as prescribed. Ask the doctor or a pharmacist if you should avoid certain foods or drinks while you’re on the medicine. Also ask what to do if you accidentally skip a dose.
If your doctor wants you to use compression stockings, make sure they tell you often and how long to wear them. Check your legs and feet for redness or sores each time you take the stockings off. Call the doctor right away if you notice changes in your skin.
If the doctor wants you to use a compression device at home, follow their instructions on how to do so exactly. They’ll tell you how long and how often to use it. Remember to take the device’s sleeves off before you walk around.
Follow your doctor’s instructions on getting active again. Your doctor may keep certain activities off-limits at first. But in general, move as much as you can to keep your blood flowing.
If your care team had you doing gentle movement exercises in bed or in a chair at the hospital, keep doing these at home. You could also ask a loved one to help you move your arms and legs while you’re in bed or if you need to use a wheelchair.
How To Prevent Blood Clots After Tummy Tuck Surgery
Tummy tucks and body lifts can be life-changing procedures. The removal of skin and fat excess along with tightening of the abdominal wall can reverse many of the problems that occur following childbirth and/or weight loss. But make no mistake: even though tummy tucks and body lifts are cosmetic surgeries, they are still surgery. And every surgery has risks.
The most serious risk of any excisional body contouring procedure is blood clots. Due to the immobility associated with any major surgery (especially one that temporarily makes it more difficult to walk), there is a risk of blood clots forming in leg veins (deep venous thrombosis). If a clot “breaks off” and travels through the bloodstream to the lungs, it can suddenly and seriously impair oxygen exchange. This life-threatening condition is called a pulmonary embolus. It requires immediate treatment with blood thinners (to dissolve the clot) and oxygen.
Every plastic surgeon and plastic surgery patient should take these risks very seriously. The question: what can we do to prevent blood clots following tummy tuck and circumferential body contouring (body lift)? We have a protocol:
- DO NOT smoke for at least one month before surgery and one month after surgery. Smoking causes constriction of blood vessels, impairing blood flow and oxygenation. Smoking greatly increases your risk of blood clots (even if you are not undergoing surgery).
- DO NOT use contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy for at least one week before surgery and one week after surgery. These substances can increase your risk of blood clots (even if you are not undergoing surgery).
- DO walk regularly after surgery. Every time you want to eat or use the restroom, you must have a family member or friend help you to the kitchen or the bathroom. Regular meals in bed are just a bad idea. Walking helps pump blood through your leg veins, preventing clots from forming.
- DO use SCDs. Sequential compression devices (SCDs) are mechanical pumps that intermittently compress the leg veins, promoting circulation by simulating walking. We place these on all patients undergoing surgery in our nationally-accredited surgical facility, the West Plano Plastic Surgery Center. We send abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) and body lifting patients home with an SCD machine for the first few days to further reduce the risk of blood clots. I do not know of any other surgeon or surgery center that does this routinely, and I sincerely believe that they should.
- DO consider anticoagulants. Anticoagulants (blood thinners) can significantly reduce the risk of blood clots. Unlike #s 1 to 4 above, they do increase the risk of postoperative bleeding, so they must be used with caution. For example, I will not use an anticoagulant in a patient who bleeds excessively during surgery. However, in most patients undergoing excisional body contouring, I begin low dose Lovenox (low molecular weight heparin) in the first 24 hours after surgery and continue its use daily for a week.
With this protocol in place over the past five years, we have not experienced a single clotting-or bleeding-episode in a tummy tuck or body lift patient.
We want you to look great after surgery. But first and foremost, we want you to be safe!