If you are unhappy with the appearance of your abdomen, you may be considering a tummy tuck. A tummy tuck will help you achieve a slimmer, more lifted appearance if you have excess skin, stretch marks, or scarring from previous surgery. A tummy tuck can also be used to remove excess fat from the abdomen. This procedure is frequently combined with liposuction to provide the best results for patients seeking both cosmetic enhancement and body contouring.
An incision is made around the navel and extends down through the lower abdomen during tummy tuck surgery. The excess skin and fat will then be removed from this area by the surgeon before sewing everything back together. Drains will be used by your surgeons to ensure that no fluid accumulates during your recovery!
Read on to learn more about How Do I Know If I Need A Tummy Tuck, Tummy Tuck Risks Of Death and Tummy Tuck Complications Years Later
How Do I Know If I Need A Tummy Tuck
If you’ve been thinking about getting a tummy tuck, but still aren’t sure whether surgery is right for you, schedule a one-on-one consultation with Dr. Bachelor to explore your options. Tummy tuck surgery is a fairly extensive procedure that can completely transform the look and feel of your midsection. If you are done having children and are eager to get your pre-pregnancy body back, tummy tuck surgery could be just what you need to get a flat and toned stomach. If you just want to enhance your figure and lose some of the extra flab, consider the benefits of plastic surgery to sculpt and contour your body.
Here are just five signs you’re ready for a tummy tuck:
1. You have an apple body shape. If you tend to carry most of your weight around your midsection, it may be impossible for you to get those washboard abs and maintain a flat stomach — even with a healthy diet and exercise program. Tummy tuck surgery can reshape your midsection to whittle down your waistline and create a more attractive silhouette.
2. You have stretched abdominal muscles. Whether it’s from multiple pregnancies or extreme weight loss, stretched or torn abdominal muscles may be making your stomach protrude or appear saggy. Tummy tuck surgery can repair and tighten these muscles to create a flat and toned look.
3. You want a more feminine silhouette. An S-shaped silhouette is ideal for many, but few women are born with this body shape. Getting a tummy tuck can help to create a more feminine silhouette by reshaping the abdomen and creating a more streamlined figure. We can also perform liposuction of the flanks and abdomen to further enhance the results of your tummy tuck.
4. You have loose skin around your midsection. Loose or sagging skin around your midsection may be making you feel self-conscious when wearing a bathing suit or tight-fitting clothing. If you want a tighter stomach, tummy tuck surgery may be the only way to achieve your ideal figure. Loose and sagging skin will only get worse over time and is not always treatable with non-invasive skin tightening treatments. Tummy tuck surgery involves getting rid of excess skin and tightening the treatment area to achieve the ideal contours.
5. Your midsection is a stubborn area. If you live a relatively healthy lifestyle but find that your midsection just isn’t responding to your diet and exercise efforts, tummy tuck surgery may be the only way to achieve the results you want. What you think may be a problem with excess fat can actually turn out to be excess abdominal tissue or skin. We can slim down the waistline, flatten the stomach, and give you a more youthful-looking body shape with this targeted body contouring procedure.
Tummy Tuck Risks Of Death
Abdominoplasty alone is considered a “major” surgical procedure in terms of risk and impact on normal homeostasis. Relative to other aesthetic surgical procedures, it is associated with higher rates of morbidity and morality, although with lower rates when compared with such reconstructive procedures as craniofacial surgery. According to Grazer and Goldwyn, it carries a mortality rate of 1:617 (.16 percent). about the same as that of hang gliding (1:600). A recent survey reported a rate as 1:2324 (.04 percent). The implication is that abdominoplasty has a significant and definable mortality risk associated with it; therefore, any additional procedure added to an abdominoplasty with further risk should caution the surgeon to minimize adverse outcomes before proceeding. Since not operating incurs no medical hardships, any further risks imposed by liposuction must be weighed by the physician and patient against potential gains.
Department of Plastic Surgery, Queen Mary’s Hospital, London
A 6-year retrospective series of 133 abdominoplasties was studied and type and incidence of complications are presented. From this series a group of 34 patients was re-examined between 4 and 10 1/2 years postoperatively and conclusions were made from this long-term follow-up. A high incidence of injury to the lateral cutaneous nerve of the thigh was recorded. A blood transfusion was required in 19% of the cases, the average hospitalization was 12.4 days and the complication rate ranged between 24% in those who did not attend review and 65% in those who were re-examined. Objectively judged, 55% of the patients had excellent or good results, but subjective patient satisfaction was nearly 90%.
A Safer Alternative
We recommend instead the Yoho Method “No Scalpel Tummy Tuck”, done with liposuction, which in most cases gives you a much better result with skin shrinkage and almost no scarring. If you are indeed a tummy tuck candidate, we will tell you. For more information, read “Liposuction vs. Tummy Tucks”.
Tummy Tuck Complications Years Later
Abdominoplasty—sometimes called “tummy tuck”—has a higher risk of major complications than other cosmetic plastic surgery procedures, reports a study in the November issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Complication risk is particularly high for the large proportion of patients undergoing abdominoplasty in combination with other procedures, according to an analysis of nationwide data by Dr. Julian Winocour of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, and colleagues. They write, “Combined procedures can significantly increase complication rates and should be considered carefully in higher-risk patients.”
Database Shows High Risk of Major Complications after Abdominoplasty
The researchers assessed abdominoplasty complication rates and risk factors using the nationwide CosmetAssure database. CosmetAssure is an insurance program providing coverage for complications related to cosmetic plastic surgery procedures, which are typically not covered by health insurance.
The study included nearly 25,000 abdominoplasties performed between 2008 and 2013, representing about 14 percent of all procedures in the database. Abdominoplasty is done to remove excess skin and tissue from the abdomen, to create a smoother, firmer abdominal profile.
Ninety-seven percent of abdominoplasty patients were women; the average age was 42 years. Sixty-five percent of patients underwent abdominoplasty combined with other cosmetic surgery procedures.
Overall, major complications occurred in four percent of patients undergoing abdominoplasty—significantly higher than the 1.4 percent rate after other cosmetic surgery procedures. (The database didn’t include less-serious complications that can be managed in the clinic). Hematomas (blood collections) were the most common major complication, followed by infections, blood clots (venous thromboembolism), and lung-related problems.
Combined procedures were a key risk factor for complications. Compared to the 3.1 percent rate with abdominoplasty alone, risk increased when abdominoplasty was combined with other procedures: up to 10.4 percent when abdominoplasty was combined with body contouring plus liposuction. After adjustment for other factors, the relative risk of major complications was 50 percent higher with combined procedures.
Other risk factors for major complications included male sex, age 55 years or older, and obesity. Risk was lower when abdominoplasty was performed in an office-based surgical suite, compared to a hospital or surgical center. Dr. Winocour comments, “Surgeons often refer patients with major illnesses, such as heart disease, to hospitals, which may be responsible for this observed trend in complications.”
Diabetes and smoking—two major surgical risk factors—were not associated with a significant increase in complications after abdominoplasty. “That likely reflected Board-certified plastic surgeons’ practice of not offering abdominoplasty to poorly controlled diabetics and recommending strict smoking cessation for at least four weeks before and after surgery,” Dr. Wincour adds.
Abdominoplasty is the sixth most common cosmetic surgical procedure performed in the United States, with more than 117,000 procedures performed in 2014, according to ASPS statistics. The number of abdominoplasties has increased in recent years—partly because of the increased number of patients undergoing body contouring surgery to remove excess skin and tissue after massive weight loss.
The study adds to previous evidence that abdominoplasty carries a higher complication rate than other cosmetic plastic surgery procedures. “Although the overall incidence of major complications is low, such complications can leave a potentially devastating cosmetic outcome and pose a significant financial burden on the patient and surgeon,” the researchers write.
They draw special attention to the risk associated with multiple procedures—especially since nearly two-thirds of patients in the database underwent other cosmetic procedures combined with abdominoplasty. Dr. Winocour and colleagues suggest that some patients at high risk of complications might be better off undergoing staged rather than combination procedures.