Abdominoplasty is a surgery that seeks to improve the abdominal contour. That is, it is performed to avoid flaccidity, adiposity in the abdomen and enhance the muscles of the abdominal wall.
In general, there are two types of patients who are interested in this type of surgery: those women who have gone through a previous pregnancy or people who have lost a significant amount of weight. The nature of the changes produced in pregnancy or after weight loss makes patients unable to regain the desired abdomen with diet and exercise.
- Pregnancy: after giving birth, patients present some weakness in the musculature. This phenomenon is known as rectus abdominis diastasis and consists of a separation of the muscles. It can be corrected by joining the rectus abdominis with a technique called rectus plication.
- Weight loss: the consequences are usually a great flaccidity and sagging of the abdominal tissues. It can be reversed by resection of excess skin.
What is an abdominoplasty?
This surgery is performed through a suprapubic incision and dissection of the layers of the abdominal wall. Depending on what you want to correct, one technique or another will be chosen.
– Flaccidity: resection of excess skin is performed.
– Adiposity: liposuction is performed.
– Abdominal diastasis: plication of the rectum is performed.
Alternatives to conventional abdominoplasty
– Lipoabdominoplasty: it is complemented with liposuction of other areas.
– Miniabdominoplasty: improvement of the infraumbilical area (below the navel) is performed, without transposing the navel.
– Circumferential abdominoplasty: the technique covers the anterior and posterior abdomen.
– T-shaped abdominoplasty: it is limited to the anterior abdominal area but removes excess in both horizontal and vertical directions.
Abdominoplasty Preparation and Recovery
Prior to surgery, a complete preoperative work-up should be performed and the patient’s medical history should be carefully evaluated. For this purpose, in some cases, an imaging test may be requested.
Recovery is usually achieved in the first 15 days, although physical exercise is not allowed during the first month after the operation. In addition, drains are usually required for the first few days, to avoid seroma, and the use of an abdominal binder. Patients usually return to work 20 to 30 days after surgery.