How long do tummy tuck drains stay in? The patient will have a drain inserted immediately after surgery. The drain is an 18-gauge catheter, which is inserted through the abdominal wall under local anesthesia. The drain allows for removal of blood and body fluids that accumulate during surgery, as well as for proper healing of your incision line.
The drain will be removed in the office about 5 to 7 days after surgery. It is best to wait until all drainage has stopped completely before removing the drain, which means no more than 2 to 3 ounces of fluid over 24 hours.
Read on to learn more about How Long Do Tummy Tuck Drains Stay In, How Long Does It Take For A Tummy Tuck Incision To Heal
How Long Do Tummy Tuck Drains Stay In
Let’s take a minute to go through the way your body heals. That will help to explain why some doctors use drains for tummy tuck patients.
The Healing Process
You’re excited about getting a tummy tuck so you probably don’t think about your tummy tuck recovery as your body “healing a wound”. However, that’s exactly what happens during your recovery period. Your body doesn’t differentiate between the healing of an elective surgery or an accidental injury. Any kind of wound healing has the same general stages. When it comes to your tummy tuck, one of the most important parts of the healing process is the inflammation stage.
Inflammation
During the inflammation stage, your immune system sends white blood cells to your wound to attack and destroy any bacteria, damaged tissues, or foreign materials that might be present. In the case of your tummy tuck, inflammation is your body’s response to your tissue being moved around during surgery, which your body registers as tissue damage.1
One aspect of inflammation is fluid accumulation, which is a normal part of healing, and usually harmless. This fluid contains white blood cells, adequate blood flow, and a number of other components including lymph, to enable your tissues to heal properly. Fro example, when you get a scrape on your knee, there is a small amount of fluid under the scab. In the case of a small scrape, that fluid is helpful, but, in the case of your tummy tuck, too much of that pooled fluid can cause you some problems.
Tummy Tuck and Fluid
Before your tummy tuck, your skin, fat, fascia, and muscle are all tightly adhered to each other. There’s no air or space between the different tissue layers, and there’s no injury for your body to heal, which means there’s no extra fluid in your tissues.
After your tummy tuck, your entire belly has been worked on, and your body needs to heal from what it registers as an injury, so there is an excess amount of fluid being made by your belly’s tissues. The surgical process also leads to a space between your fat layer and your muscle layer. This space has the potential to accumulate whatever fluid is building to help with healing. This can lead to what is called a seroma.
Seroma
A seroma is a collection of fluid in your tissues. If it’s a small seroma, you might not notice it. If it is a larger seroma, it could feel like an uncomfortable pressure in your lower belly. You may feel a jiggly, “water balloon” sensation. A seroma is usually located in your lower belly or pubic area because fluid falls with gravity, and this is the most gravity-dependent position in your belly. However, it is also possible to develop a seroma in your upper belly or elsewhere.
Most of the time, seromas do not lead to anything harmful. In rare cases, your body can “wall off” a seroma, which can lead to fluid accumulating for weeks. This situation could require another surgical procedure to remove the “walls” of the seroma. Another rare complication is that a seroma can become infected.2
How are seromas treated?
If your surgeon feels that you have a seroma, they will try to suck out the fluid by inserting a needle and pulling the excess fluid out into a syringe.3 This process is called “aspiration” of fluid. Usually, your belly skin is numb after surgery, so putting the needle through the skin is often painless. However, this process may feel somewhat uncomfortable, especially the first time.
Imagine that your body is like a bed. You have a fitted sheet on the bottom and a flat sheet on top. When the space between the sheets is loose, fluid can collect between the sheets. Your goal is to glue the fitted sheet and top sheet together, so there is no space for the fluid to collect. So, after the fluid is aspirated, it is very important to use your compression garment to squeeze that space shut. Also, avoid any unnecessary or strenuous activity. The more active you are, the more fluid your body tends to produce.
How often will you need to be aspirated?
It depends on the person. If you are really accumulating a lot of fluid, you may need to be aspirated every few days to avoid that uncomfortable pressure. For most people, though, once a week aspiration is enough.
How long will I need to keep aspirating the seroma?
Again, it depends on the person. Some people’s bodies keep producing fluid for weeks or months. For others, it will only last a week or two. As your body produces less and less fluid, the seroma will shrink. Eventually, it should go away completely.
I don’t want to get a seroma. How can I avoid it?
Surgical drains were designed to eliminate spaces left behind after tissue manipulation in surgery. Typically, a drain relies on some sort of suction, which removes the extra fluid that can accumulate between your tissues.4 It also helps “glue together” the post-surgical space so that there isn’t room for fluid to build up in the first place. Typically, after your tummy tuck, you will probably have a drain on each side of your belly, to remove fluid from both sides.5
What are drains?
There are several different kinds of surgical drains, but the ones your surgeon uses for your tummy tuck are probably what are called “suction drains”. Suction drains use negative pressure to remove fluid.
One commonly used suction drain is the “Jackson Pratt” (or, “JP”) drain, which has several components. There is a white tube with holes in it that stays in the surgical wound, there is a part of the tube that is clear and comes out of your body, and there is a collection device at the end. The collection device is an oblong bulb that is squeezed, connected to the tube, and then is released to expand. That creates suction within the collection device, which sucks out the fluid from between your belly tissues.
Are There Any Problems Associated With Drains?
The most common thing that patients dislike about drains is that they are uncomfortable.6
They can tug and pull at your pubis area which can feel tender and sensitive. It can be a nuisance to have a tube dangling out of your body. Also, because they connect your insides with the outside world, they could contribute to infection. You might also need to have them in for a longer time than you or your surgeon were anticipating, depending on the amount of fluid that your body is making.
How Long Will I Need Drains After My Tummy Tuck?
How long you have your drains in depends on your fluid output. Usually, your first drain can be removed within two weeks from your tummy tuck. However, your second drain is typically left in until the fluid being drained is less than about 30 mL per day for 24 hours. That’s a common rule of thumb, but your surgeon may have other criteria.
You should use a drain log to track your drainage. The amount and rate of fluid drainage varies from person to person, so someone else might have theirs taken out within two weeks, and you might have yours out in four. It all depends on the person.
Listen To Your Surgeon
If your plastic surgeon uses drains after your tummy tuck, it is a precaution to help avoid seroma. So, even if you might want them taken out early, they’re there to help you heal properly, so leave them in until your doctor says they’re ready to come out.
It may be possible to have your tummy tuck without using drains but remember that this may increase the risk of you developing a seroma. Ask your surgeon for more information.
Tummy Tuck Wound Healing Problems
A tummy tuck is a procedure that removes excess skin and fat from the abdomen and improves the appearance of the abdominal muscles. It can also be used to remove excess skin on the thighs and buttocks.
A tummy tuck can improve your body contour after pregnancy, weight loss, or aging. The procedure can also help with stretch marks, hernias, and other problems with the abdominal wall.
If you have a full-term pregnancy, your abdomen will stretch and then shrink back to its original size over time. If you have had multiple pregnancies or if you’re older than 35, your abdominal muscles may not return to their original shape on their own or any time soon.
A tummy tuck removes loose skin and excess fat from around your middle and tightens the muscles underneath. It can help repair stretched out scars from previous surgeries, such as C-sections or hysterectomies. A tummy tuck is usually combined with liposuction in areas like the lower back, hips or thighs if excess fat is present there as well
There are several reasons why you may be having problems with your tummy tuck wound healing. First, it is very important for you to understand that any surgery and especially a tummy tuck is going to be painful and uncomfortable. You will experience swelling and bruising that will take several weeks to months before they begin to resolve.
The pain that you are experiencing may be due to a number of factors. One possibility is that your incision has opened up or has gotten infected, which would require further evaluation by your surgeon. Another possibility is that the scar tissue has formed too early and too tight and this may require another surgical procedure called scar revision (plication) to help improve the appearance of your scar.
I hope this helps!
How Long Does It Take For A Tummy Tuck Incision To Heal
The length of time it takes for a tummy tuck incision to heal depends on the type of procedure you had and how well you take care of yourself after surgery.
If you’re having a mini-abdominoplasty or umbilical hernia repair, your incisions will be much smaller than those associated with traditional tummy tuck procedures. In these cases, your surgeon may use dissolvable sutures to close your incisions. These dissolve over time and don’t require removal by your doctor.
The longer it takes for an incision to heal depends on where the wound is located on your body and whether it’s closed with stitches or staples. If a wound is closed with stitches, it can take between four weeks and three months for a scar to fade completely. If the wound is closed with staples, the scar may take up to six months to disappear completely.
After a tummy tuck, the incision will be closed with stitches. The stitches will dissolve on their own, but it’s important to follow your doctor’s instructions for caring for yourself after surgery.
The first few days are the most crucial in terms of wound healing. If you’re having trouble breathing or moving around, let your doctor know immediately.
When you wake up from surgery, you may notice some swelling around your incision area. This is normal and should go away in a few weeks as you heal.
You’ll experience pain at different points throughout your recovery. It may feel like cramping or pulling sensation — especially when you cough or sneeze — but this is normal and temporary. Also, it’s common to develop bruising along the incision line where the skin was cut open during surgery.
As far as how long it takes for an incision to heal after a tummy tuck procedure: This depends on the type of procedure performed and how well you take care of yourself after surgery. In general, though, expect it to take about six weeks before your scar looks its best
A tummy tuck incision heals in five to seven days. The incision is usually closed with stitches that dissolve on their own.
Some patients may have an elastic bandage placed over the incision to keep it clean and dry while it heals. The bandage is removed before leaving the hospital and replaced every other day with gauze until it no longer sticks to the wound when removed.
The sutures used in tummy tucks are absorbable, which means that they gradually dissolve as your body absorbs them over time. When all of the stitches have dissolved, there will be no evidence of an incision on your abdomen.
If you have a tummy tuck, the scar will be either vertical or horizontal. With a vertical incision, the scar is located at the top of your abdomen and goes down vertically to the pubic area. With a horizontal incision, it extends from one side of your belly button to the other.
Tummy tuck scars are usually red for about two weeks after surgery and will gradually fade over time.
The length of time it takes for your surgical incision to heal depends on how deep it is and whether you had any drains in place during your operation. If you had drains and they were removed early in the healing process, you may find that your scar is still red and swollen even though it has been more than six months since your surgery. This can last up to a year but will eventually fade away completely (though there is no way to speed up this process).
If you had no drains after surgery, your scar should be almost completely healed by now (it may still look red but shouldn’t feel tender).
The Tummy Tuck incision heals very quickly, as long as you follow your doctor’s post-op instructions. I tell my patients to massage the incision gently twice a day for 10 minutes each time.
There will be some swelling at first but that should subside within 2 weeks. After that any remaining swelling is due to fluid accumulation in the tissues below the skin (called seroma). This can take anywhere from 3-6 weeks to resolve on its own.
The stitches dissolve and fall out on their own in about 2 weeks, so you don’t have to worry about them anymore.
The scar will continue to improve over time, becoming less red and raised until it becomes practically invisible after 1 year or so.