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Learn more about tummy tuck surgery. They'll provide more help with abdominoplasty, preparing for surgery, and the procedure. Preparing for the tummy tuck surgery Your surgeon will give you specific guidelines on how to prepare for surgery. These guidelines will cover areas like eating and drinking, smoking, and taking or avoiding certain vitamins, and medications. Common guidelines for preparing for a tummy tuck include:
Be sure to arrange for someone to drive you home after your tummy tuck surgery, and to help you out for a day or two after you leave the hospital, if needed. You will need the assistance as you come off the anesthesia and wait to make sure there are no post-surgical complications. Having someone with you at all times to care for you is especially necessary if the tummy tuck has been performed in conjunction with another operation in the region, such as a hysterectomy or a hernia repair. Where will the tummy tuck be performed? Many surgeons perform both partial and complete tummy tucks in an outpatient surgical center or an office-based facility. Other surgeons prefer to perform tummy tucks in the hospital, where their patients can stay for several days. What type of anesthesia will I go under? Your tummy tuck will be performed under either general or local anesthesia, depending on what your surgeon believes best for your particular surgery. General anesthesia uses medication to make a person unconscious. Medications are commonly breathed into the lungs or injected into the veins through an intravenous line inserted into a vein in the hand or arm. An individual may also be paralyzed with other medications to prevent movement during the surgery. General anesthesia requires the presence of an anesthesiologist to constantly monitor the dose of anesthesia. If your surgeon selects general anesthesia, you will sleep through the operation and not feel a thing. Local anesthesia works by injecting numbing medication into the skin or other surface at the site of the procedure. The injection is usually near the surface, but may be deeper in some cases. The site of the procedure is first cleaned with an antibacterial cleanser and the medication is injected using a very small needle into the small, or local, area. The medication may cause a stinging or burning sensation at first, but this discomfort lasts for just a few seconds. It takes a few minutes for the local anesthetic to produce its full effect, but when it has done so the person should be unable to feel pain in the treated area. Some surgeons prefer to use local anesthesia, combined with a sedative to make you drowsy. This procedure is sometimes preferable, as it still allows you to respond during the surgery, if necessary. If your surgeon opts for local anesthesia, it will numb your abdominal region only. You will be awake but relaxed, and your abdominal region will be insensitive to pain. You may, however, feel some tugging or discomfort, but no actual pain. What is the actual tummy tuck surgery like? A tummy tuck surgery usually takes two to five hours, depending on the extent of work required. Partial abdominoplasty—the mini-tummy tuck—usually takes one to two hours. First, the surgeon will make an incision within or just above the pubic area. The length of the incision, which extends laterally toward the pelvic bones, depends largely on the amount of skin that has to be removed. The contour of this incision varies from person to person and depends on the structure of your abdomen. The surgeon will also take into consideration the style of bathing suit or undergarments that you prefer to wear. Whenever possible, your plastic surgeon will try to keep the incision within your bathing suit lines. Some patients have loose skin above the navel. In such cases, the surgeon may make a second incision around the navel so that the redundant skin above it can be pulled down. He or she will then make a second incision to free the navel from excess surrounding tissue. With a mini-tummy tuck, the incision is much shorter and the navel may not be moved, although it may be pulled into an unnatural shape as the skin is tightened and stitched. Next, the surgeon separates the skin from the abdominal wall all the way up to your ribs, and lifts a large skin flap to reveal the vertical muscles in your abdomen. The surgeon tightens these muscles by pulling them close together and stitching them into their new position. This tightening narrows the waistline and provides a firmer abdominal wall. The surgeon then stretches down the skin flap and removes the extra skin. Skin containing stretch marks will be removed whenever possible. He or she cuts a new hole for the navel and stitches the navel into its new place. Finally, the surgeon stitches the incisions, applies dressings, and inserts a temporary tube to drain excess fluid from the surgically treated area. In a mini tummy tuck, the skin is separated only between the incision line and the navel. The surgeon stretches this skin flap down, removes the excess, and stitches the flap back into place.
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