Abdominoplasty Is Tummy Tuck Surgery

If you've ever heard the term "abdominoplasty" and wondered what it was, now you know. Abdominoplasty is tummy tuck surgery. It's just a big medical word for the tummy tuck procedure.

The Patients

The typical patient for abdominoplasty (tummy tuck surgery) is someone who has sagging skin around their abdomen. There are several causes for the sagging skin. Some patients are women who have had several children. Their stomach stretched during pregnancy. These women are finished having children and they want to be fit and firm again.

Yet they find, after using diet and exercise to lose the weight they gained during their pregnancies, that they still have a little pocket of fat under their belly or sagging skin in the belly area because their skin lost its elasticity in the later pregnancies. These women get tummy tuck surgery, or abdominoplasty, to restore their stomachs to the state they were in before all those pregnancies.

Other patients are people who have been grossly obese. These people have lost a lot of weight, sometimes more than one hundred pounds. All that fat stretched their skin to the point of no return. Like a latex balloon that has been inflated for years and then deflates, the skin that has been inflated for many years will wither and sag when it is finally deflated by the removal of fat, whether by dieting and exercise or by liposuction or surgery. Formerly obese patients have abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck surgery, to remove extra skin from their abdomens and make the appearance of their stomach match their new physique.

Finally, there are some moderately obese patients who, through diet and exercise, have removed fat from virtually everywhere on their bodies, but for some reason a layer of stubborn fat remains under the belly. These patients have tummy tuck surgery (abdominoplasty) instead of liposuction to remove the fat under the skin and tighten the skin at the same time.

The Procedure

During abdominoplasty, the surgeon makes an incision from hip to hip along the patient's bikini line. A second incision is made to loosen the belly button stalk from the body. The surgeon then tightens the muscles and sutures them back together. After suturing the muscles, the surgeon removes extra skin and fat, repositions the belly button, and sews the patient back up.

Recovery from an abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck surgery, varies depending on the severity of incisions and the amount of fat and skin removed, and depending on the physical condition of the patient prior to surgery. Some patients return to work in two weeks; others need as much as six weeks to get back to normal.