Often, after a severe weight loss, or after a pregnancy, the abdomen may be more or less prominent, present deep stretch marks or back plate but present a severe wrinkled and pendulous excess skin that occurs due to lack of elasticity. The abdominoplasty is the surgical procedure that allows the removal of both fat deposits and excess skin in the central and lower parts of abdomen, with the purpose of giving back a taut and flat appearance to the abdomen.
SURGICAL TECHNIQUES
The tummy tucks can be performed according to different criteria depending on the amount of skin to remove and its position. Particular care is reserved on maintaining the belly button vital and keeping its natural shape and positioning.
If corrections are required only for the part below the navel, you may want to consider the mini-tummy tuck, which does not require repositioning of the belly button. There are also variants halfway between tummy tuck and mini-tummy tuck, where the navel is the original one but moved a couple of inches lower, or where the original navel is sutured without being knocked out in adipose-cutaneous flap but remains visible in the midline as a small three centimeters scar.
These techniques are used in cases where the skin that must be removed is more than what would be removed with a mini-abdominoplasty, but less than what could removed with a full abdominoplasty.
In the same surgery session you can also easily correct the defects of the abdominal wall muscle, for both functional and aesthetic reasons.
The surgery timing goes between 30 and 90 minutes for the mini tummy tuck, which can be performed under local anesthesia with sedation, always in day-surgery formula. Traditional abdominoplasty is performed in about 3, requires general anesthesia, the use of drainage and at least an overnight stay in hospital.
RECOVERY
After a tummy tuck, you need complete rest for 24-48 hours; you can walk for short distances at home, taking care to maintain a good “bent forward” posture in order not to aggravate the feeling of tension in the abdomen. For the first few days coughing, sneezing and all movements that involve the abdominal muscles can cause discomfort and / or pain. It’s advisable not to sleep in the prone position for 2 weeks.
For all the time in which the patient will hold the drains (about 5 days) it is important to rest, even if not in bed, not to favor thromboembolic episodes. From the third week after surgery on, you can go back to drive and to the normal activities (if it is not physically demanding jobs). Sports can be resumed after 6-8 weeks.
The mini tummy tuck recovery is essentially the same as traditional tummy-tuck only with halved timings.