“What is a tummy tuck?”

A “tummy tuck”(abdominoplasty) is an operation that addresses the concerns that many women have after the birth of their children - the excess skin is removed, the abdominal/flank fat is contoured and the rectus abdominus muscles that separate to accommodate a pregnancy are tightened.
The procedure can be extensive depending on the individual patient but is generally very well tolerated.

A full tummy tuck involves tightening of the abdominal wall muscles called the rectus abdominis, and removing the excess skin below the belly button and tightening the remaining skin. It is a rather large surgical procedure and can be quite painful postoperatively

A tummy tuck involves liposuction as needed, removal of extra skin, and tightening of the muscles underneath.

Tummy tuck can have three components: skin removal, fat removal and muscle tightening. You may need all or some of the above. This is determined at your consultation. Depending on the extent of your procedure will determine the discomfort. There are multiple factors that can help to minimize the discomfort: oral medications for pain and tightness, abdominal wall blocks (TAP blocks) and pain pumps which provide local anesthesia for several days.

A tummy tuck sounds like it could be a great option for you if you are unhappy with extra skin after childbirth. We inject pain medications and the procedure is pain free. You may experience pain after the operation but we handle this based on your tolerance with medications as well. To ensure your best results, see a board certified plastic surgeon.

A “tummy tuck” is the common term for an abdominoplasty. This operation reconstructs and restores the abdominal wall to the more youthful and attractive pre-pregnancy state. Extra skin and fat are removed and separated abdominal muscles are brought back together. The recovery is moderatley uncomfortable but the results are worth any discomfort one may feel.

The excess skin and fat are removed from the abdomen. It takes about an hour and a half to perform and the recovery period is about 2 to 3 weeks. Not extremely painful

A "tummy tuck" is an operation aimed at restoring the damage done to the abdominal wall during pregnancy or to remove excess skin after significant weight loss, or both. It is a fairly routine procedure when done by Board Certified Plastic surgeons, but can be "botched" when not done by properly trained professionals. Unfortunately, this happens more often than you might imagine. Do your due diligence before embarking on this path.

Regarding the surgery, it does leave a significant scar on the lower abdomen and you have to consider this a trade off. Further; it can be painful depending on how mush muscle repair is required to restore your anatomy to normal. Your surgeon has ways of minimizing the pain and should discuss them with you beforehand. The actual technique that you doctor might choose depends to a large extent on your particular situation and can vary widely.

Kindest regards,

Dr. Louis Mes

Hello and thank you for your question! While I know this problem is bothersome to you, probably the "best bang for your buck" to remedy this problem is with a tummy tuck after your are done having children. The tummy tuck will tighten your loosened stomach muscles and correct the bulge (also called rectus plication to correct rectus diastasis). The tummy tuck
will also help to cut the loosened, stretched out skin. Liposuction will help to contour your waistline and get rid of the love handles.

Different surgeons have different protocols, but for my patients, I tell them to expect the following:

1) Narcotic pain medications for a period of 5-10 days; a pain pump catheter will be present for the first 3 days infusing local anesthetic to the nerves of the abdominal wall to make you very comfortable after surgery.

2) Walk hunched over and sleep in a beach chair position for 2-3 weeks; this is because with a tummy tuck, we bring the skin from above the umbilicus down to a point 6 cm above the introitus for a low scar and tight contour. The skin in between is excised and the belly button is brought out through a new opening within the abdominoplasty skin flap. As you can
imagine, it is a tight closure, so standing upright may cause the incision to open, so best to take tension off the wound and in 2-3 weeks, the skin should stretch enough to let you comfortably stand up without opening your incision and still have a tight contour.

3) No lifting over 10 lbs for the first month and no lifting over 20 lbs during the 2nd month after surgery. The reason for this is that a) you will have a lot of scar to heal and more importantly, b) the rectus diastasis (gap between your muscles from having children or gaining weight that causes a bulge) is repaired and those stitches need time to hold and form
scar tissue; it takes about 2 months to reach 80% of the final wound strength so it is important not to stress this repair to the muscle as muscle does not hold stitches well.

4) Most of my patients are moving around better after 2-3 weeks from surgery and feel like their normal selves at about 3-4 weeks. I see my patients at 1 week post-op, 1 month post-op, 3 months, 6 months, and then yearly for as long as we both live. Obviously, I am available to see my patients sooner than those intervals if needed.

I hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Dr. Sean Kelishadi

Thanks for your question. A tummy tuck is one of the most popular procedures for a post-pregnant mom, looking to have a flatter belly, after pregnancy has caused a condition caused rectus diastasis. It is a 3-4 hour outpatient procedure with a 1-2 week recovery. Hope this helps.

It is common that after having children, a mother would have loose skin of their abdominal wall. Also, the muscle layer can be loose. A tummy tuck is a common surgical procedure, done under anesthesia, in a certified operating room, by a plastic surgeon. This procedure requires an incision across your lower tummy (along the panty line) with separation of some of the layers of your abdominal wall. The loose muscle underneath is then tightened by placing several strong internal stitches in the muscle. This creates an internal "corset" which helps flatten the tummy and shape the waist. The fat layer is then improved by contouring with liposuction. Finally, the loose skin layer is stretched and the excess is trimmed off. An new belly button is created. The final wound edges are closed with multiple layers of dissolving buried stitches. These tend to heal well with a scar very low on your tummy and a small scar around the belly button. There is pain with these procedure which is well tolerated and is tempered with the use of pain medicines. Healing can take several weeks. Usually the first week you will mostly be resting. You will need to wear a compression garment. After the first week, you will be up and about more, walking, etc., but not doing anything strenuous. Anything more active or strenuous activity may not begin for 6-8 weeks post.

After two pregnancies your abdominal wall (stomach) may stretch along with the skin covering it. At this point even by loosing weight and exercising the condition may only be corrected by surgery. This involves tightening the abdominal wall, removing redundant skin and possibly liposuction Other procedures may be done at same time . It can be painfull, however this is less and less of a problem with use of newer long lasting anesthetics injected during surgery that may last more than 4 days. I recommend you see a competent Plastic Surgeon who would carefully examine you take your medical/surgical history and give you an honest assessment. Good luck to you.

Tummy tuck or abdominalplasty is the removal of all the skin between the belly button and the pubis. It frequently involves liposuction. It is one of our slightly more tender procedures, plus you have to walk ASAP.

Good luck,

William A. Stefani, MD

The tummy tuck tightens the skin and the muscles. It is not painful.