The tummy tuck is a surgical procedure that removes unwanted fat and skin from the lower abdomen and tightens the muscles. The results of this procedure can include a flatter, firmer abdomen with smoother skin. The back pain you are experiencing is likely due to the tension placed on your abdominal muscles during your tummy tuck surgery. You may also be experiencing some soreness in the lower back area due to the tension placed on your skin and muscles during the healing process.
The best way to reduce your back pain is to take it easy while you are recovering from surgery and avoid any activities that put stress on your back (such as lifting heavy objects). As time passes, you should notice that your back pain has subsided.
Read on to learn more about Horrible Back Pain After Tummy Tuck, Nerve Pain In Leg After Tummy Tuck and Nerve Pain after Tummy Tuck
Horrible Back Pain After Tummy Tuck
If you’ve long been a sufferer of back pain, then you’re fully aware of the adverse effect it can have on your everyday life.
Reduced mobility and near constant pain can make even the most trivial of tasks a chore. Long-term medication use means recurring trips to the doctor and pharmacy and potentially living life through a haze. An inability to rest or sleep makes you sluggish and unresponsive at times when you should or need to be at your most alert.
Irritability and lost capacity to handle stress have put a strain on not just you, but your relationships. These are just a few of the daily challenges you might face. As time goes on, with little in the way of relief, these and other side effects of your back pain are only going to increase.
The prospect of continued misery can be overwhelming. What if there was a way to ease the constant suffering and never-ending doses of ineffective medicines? What if that remedy was a commonly performed procedure better known for its cosmetic benefits instead of medical advantages?
What if that procedure was a tummy tuck?
An Internal Back Brace
Abdominoplasty surgery, better known as a tummy tuck, has long been used to remove excess skin and fat from a patient’s abdomen. The operation also helps to reestablish weak or separated muscles caused by pregnancy, aging, and other factors.
The procedure is predominately used to repair the abdominal wall in women who were once pregnant, often as part of so-called “mommy makeovers.” The surgery is frequently cited as a confidence booster from the improved physical appearance of the patient’s mid-section.
Other individuals that have benefited from the surgery include people who’ve experienced significant weight loss or have had previous surgery. Aging and heredity factors, though less common, can also weaken muscles and draw patients to the tummy tuck procedure.
What is often lesser known is that, in tightening the connective tissues in and around your abdomen, your spine becomes more stable. This effectively tightens your core and helps to correct poor posture and solidify your upper body.
Can a Tummy Tuck Really Improve Back Pain?
A study done in 2011 cites that the abdominal procedure can be effective at reducing back pain. The study followed eight female patients with chronic lower back pain and loose abdominal muscle tissue. After undergoing the tummy tuck procedure, each one reported immediate improvement of their back pain.
A more recent study of 208 female patients, completed in Australia in 2016, showed a significant number of female patients experienced reduced pain in their backs and considerable improvement in urinary incontinence.
Although both studies represent a small sample, they do give real hope to long time back pain sufferers that alternatives do exist. It is important though to understand who can benefit most by having this procedure.
Not All Back Pain is Created Equal
There are many different types of back pain. A tummy tuck and the tightening of your core is not a guaranteed method in curing all forms.
Nerve problems, disc complication, or even more severe spinal damage, will be unaffected by the abdominal surgery with pain potentially increasing. Therefore, it’s essential to consult with your physician to fully determine the source of pain.
More traditional methods, including ones that do not involve surgery, may be available to better treat your back.
More Than Just Pain Relief
Tummy Tucks are quickly becoming a popular cosmetic procedure in Australia.
Even with its growing popularity, a tummy tuck is still an invasive surgery that may not be for everyone. It is understandable though, if you can no longer bear the daily stresses that come with your chronic back pain, to seek an alternative.
If, after extensive consultation with a specialist and a cosmetic surgeon, it’s determined you are a viable candidate for surgery, a tummy tuck could potentially be your solution to a pain-free life.
Nerve Pain In Leg After Tummy Tuck
Typically, there is a certain degree of pain or discomfort you can expect following surgery. Surgical procedures are traumatic for the human body, and pain may be attributed to your body trying to heal injured tissues. In some instances, however, nerve pain develops afterward and this isn’t the same kind of pain you should probably expect.
As we’ve noted throughout our website, nerve pain is often marked by symptoms like burning, shooting, stabbing, and searing pain. For some patients, external stimulation—even at low levels (like wind blowing over skin or water coming down from a showerhead)—causes intense physical sensations. Others experience “pins and needles” or feel as though a specific body part or region has been plugged into an electrical outlet.
If you have those kinds of symptoms, the pain is likely caused by a nerve issue of some kind.
In some cases, these symptoms begin after procedures like C-sections (cesarean section deliveries) and tummy tucks. When they do, it’s understandable for patients to wonder why this is happening to them. So, let’s look today at why you are having nerve pain after those kinds of procedures.
To start, it is worth noting that nerve pain does not imply that anything was done incorrectly during the surgery. Surgeons, by very definition of their job, have to cut tissues to repair medical problems. Your body has an entire network of nerves running throughout, so this means there are times when nerves will also be cut during surgery. It’s just a fact.
Nerve Pain after C-section
As with other surgical procedures, it is virtually impossible to perform a C-section without cutting into some nerves. That said, long-term nerve injury after a C-section tends to be somewhat rare.
Often, nerves will heal without causing any lasting issues. When injured nerves do not heal correctly, it is considered to be nerve damage. Depending on which nerves are damaged—and their respective functions—there are various short-term and long-term symptoms that can develop. These symptoms can include impaired motor function and nerve pain.
If you have had a C-section and are experiencing a superficial pain around the edges of the scar, it is likely the ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric, and/or genitofemoral nerves have been affected. Usually, the pain presents as a burning pain and hypersensitivity – which means even light touch hurts (like in the earlier examples of wind and water). There may also be “electric shock” sensations.
If pushing on the affected area does not reproduce the pain, those specific nerves are less likely to be responsible.
The reason for noting the ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric, and genitofemoral nerves comes down to their locations. Surgeons do attempt to avoid important nerves as much as possible, but these ones run close to the edge of a C-section incision. This makes it easy for them to be injured during the procedure (bruised, crushed, etc.) or trapped in scar tissue afterward.
If you are having painful sensations, it is more likely the nerves were injured, instead of being cut. We can say this because cut nerves tend to produce numbness instead of pain. Although, there are times when both numbness and pain result from cut nerves (which is a condition called anesthesia dolorosa).
When diagnosing your nerve pain after a C-section, we use a nerve block. This is a matter of using anesthetic to cause temporary numbness for the affected nerve. When there is both numbness and pain relief, it indicates a peripheral nerve injury. If there is numbness without pain relief, something else is likely at play.
Nerve Pain after Tummy Tuck
Tummy tucks—abdominoplasties—are some of the most common cosmetic procedures performed in the United States, with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reporting 127,633 in 2016. This is a 104% increase from the 62,713 performed in 2000.
Experts believe the number of abdominoplasties will only increase due to both the number of esthetic surgical procedures and increase in how many obese patients achieve massive weight loss following bariatric surgery.
As with other surgeries, nerves to the affected area are traumatized from a tummy tuck. This can cause numbness for several weeks to months before the nerves overcome temporary neuropraxia (loss of nerve conduction). Usually, it only takes around 6-12 weeks for the situation to resolve, but there are cases wherein this may take longer.
Whereas this numbness and a certain degree of discomfort can be expected, it can be a problem when nerve pain has developed and is not going away after a reasonable amount of time.
In the case of nerve pain following a tummy tuck, it is probably a small nerve called the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve that is affected. This particular nerve travels directly through the areas manipulated during a tummy tuck and could easily be injured directly by a suture or scalpel, or indirectly when the nerve becomes entrapped in scar tissue.
That said, it is important to note that factors other than nerve damage could be responsible for pain and sensory abnormalities. For example, massive weight loss can cause extreme skin expansion and a patient who had undergone bariatric surgery may also have had other issues (secondary fibrosis, hernia) corrected during the tummy tuck.