Preparing for a tummy tuck differs from preparing for other types of surgeries. First and foremost, you must ensure that your body is in good working order. This includes eating healthily, staying active, and getting enough sleep. You’ll also want to make sure you don’t have any health issues that could interfere with your ability to heal properly after surgery.
Following that, you should consult with your surgeon about the medications they recommend taking both before and after surgery. Your doctor will also tell you what foods you can eat before and after surgery, as well as when it’s safe to drink fluids or take medicine while recovering from the procedure. Finally, you may want to consider having an adult friend or family member stay with you during your recovery period to assist you with tasks such as cooking meals and driving you around town if necessary.
Read on to learn more about How Do I Prepare For A Tummy Tuck, Tummy Tuck Risks Of Death and Tummy Tuck Complications Years Later
How Do I Prepare For A Tummy Tuck
An abdominoplasty, better known as a tummy tuck, is a surgical procedure that requires careful planning and meticulous follow-up care for the best results. Knowing the steps to take before your abdominoplasty will ensure a better recovery process.
Ideally, you’ll have several months in advance to prepare for your tummy tuck surgery. I recommend most individuals give themselves a full six months to prepare, giving them time to find the right surgeon, achieve or maintain their ideal weight and get a plan for aftercare in place.
Some people may not need the full six months of prep before their surgery, and that’s okay. You’ll still want to make sure that you’ve taken sufficient time to research, plan and prepare. The better prepared you are for the big day of surgery, the better your results will be. Use the information below as your guide to planning your tummy tuck.
4-6 months before surgery
As soon as you start thinking about a tummy tuck, it’s time to get serious about your diet and exercise habits. Eating well, drinking more water and staying active should be your focal point. If you smoke, start the process of quitting and limit your alcohol intake if you drink. These two factors can affect the way your body heals and fights off infection. Stress management is also a good thing to implement as chronic stress can affect your health and immune response.
In this timeframe, start doing your research and locating plastic surgeons for consultations. Look for board-certified plastic surgeons with experience in the tummy tuck procedure and plenty of before and after photos of abdominoplasty patients on their website.
4 months before surgery
By this time, you should be closing in on your ideal weight and fitness level. This is going to help the surgeons you talk with to evaluate your candidacy for surgery and also puts you in a good position to recover quickly. Around 4 months before you want to have surgery, you should begin scheduling consultations and meeting with your top-rated plastic surgeons. In many markets, the best surgeons are booking out three to four months in advance, and sometimes even longer. During this time, you will need to decide on the best surgeon. You should feel comfortable discussing your goals, expectations and concerns, as well as feel confident that their recommendations align with what you envision.
3 months before surgery
During your third month of preparation, after you’ve selected a surgeon and booked surgery, you should be scheduling leave from work, making arrangements for child and animal care and setting up your support system to help with transportation and care during the post-surgery recovery phase. This is something you and your surgeon should discuss and prepare for. By now, you should completely quit smoking. You are continuing with your health and wellness regimen and hopefully feeling great about life and excited for the transformation ahead.
1 month before surgery
The last few weeks before your surgery should be used to stock up on supplies needed for recovery and finalizing the details of your procedure. Staying as comfortable as possible in the initial stage of recovery is going to be your ultimate goal for home care, so now is the time to begin assembling your supplies. Your surgeon should provide you with a list of supplies to buy. Some extra supplies that people have found to be useful and aid in the recovery process are:
- Extra pillows
- Gauze pads
- Comfortable clothing and underwear that is easy to remove
- Ice packs and over-the-counter medication for discomfort
- Compression clothing if prescribed
Create a meal prep plan to make and freeze food for later. Eliminating the worry of what to eat is going to reduce stress, keep you from grabbing unhealthy foods and help you maintain your new improved eating habits. On the day of surgery, dress comfortably and make sure you’ve followed the pre-surgery checklist your surgeon provided. You should have time to check in with your surgeon on the day of your procedure, so if you have any last-minute questions, make sure to bring those along too.
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
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.