The Modern Tummy Tuck

Pregnancy, weight gain and weight loss have a devastating impact on a woman's abdomen. Only rarely dieting and exercise can fully restore the abdomen wall to its flat desirable shape after the skin and muscles have been stretched to their limit. The tummy tuck is the procedure to remove excess fat and skin and to tighten underlying muscles in the abdomen. It also gets rid of loose or wrinkled skin and many of the stretch marks. Liposuction is ideal to contour the abdomen for those who have good skin tone and excess fat that is resistant to diet and exercise, but the tummy tuck is a better procedure for women and men who have loose abdominal skin following pregnancy and weight loss. After losing weight men can also have difficulties regaining their youthful flat abdomen. Both women and men can benefit from this extremely effective body contouring surgery

The traditional abdominoplasty procedures are associated with a relatively high complication rate because of the required large undermining of the anterior abdominal flap that involves extensive trauma and compromise to the blood supply of the abdominal flap. General anesthesia or heavy twilight sedation is frequently required to complete the surgery because of the extensive tissue dissection and manipulation.

Dr. Marcovici has adopted a revolutionary minimally invasive approach to tummy tuck that can be safely and effectively perform as an office procedure totally under local tumescent anesthesia. The technique combines two procedures: liposuction of the abdomen and the tummy tuck. With the technique used by Dr. Marcovici the amount of fat one can remove is greater, improving abdominal contour by thinning the fat layer considerably more than one can with the traditional tummy tuck while decreasing the risks of skin necrosis because the blood supply remains intact.

By avoiding the use of general anesthesia or heavy sedation (and complications associated with this type of anesthesia) this new procedure offers an improved cosmetic result and postoperative recovery.

Performing the procedure totally under local tumescent anesthesia adds additional benefits over the traditional tummy tuck:

• Minimal bleeding due to the vasoconstriction created by the tumescent anesthesia. Traditional tummy tuck can be associated with profuse bleeding and even the need for blood transfusions.

• The patient is wide awake and can ambulate, eat and drink during the surgery. That is virtually unheard of with standard tummy tuck. Following liposuction and before the tummy tuck, the patient is inspected in a standing position to draw the shape and size of the skin to be removed. This step eliminates guessing and improves the odds to achieve a body shape, contour line and a symmetrical skin incision. When the surgery is performed under general anesthesia or heavy sedation, the patient must stay lying down throughout the surgery, which forces the surgeon to guess the shape and size of the skin removal.

• The operating time is significantly reduced because no bleeding is involved.

• The technique eliminates the dog ears because liposuction allows the creation of similar fat thickness in the superior and inferior borders of the flap

• The patient is able to stand up from the operating table, ambulate and dress herself/himself at the end of the procedure. This recovery is virtually unheard of with a standard tummy tuck under general anesthesia or heavy sedation.

• Due to its long lasting effects, tumescent anesthesia offers a minimum of 12 hours pain control following the surgery.

• The abdominoplasty totally under local tumescent anesthesia results in a shorter a more aesthetic looking scar when compared with the scar from traditional tummy tuck.

• This new approach creates a more youthful abdominal silhouette and more harmonious results while avoiding complications and the prolonged recovery time associated with the traditional tummy tuck.

A note of advise:

1. If you intend to lose a lot of weight, wait until after your weight loss to schedule abdominoplasty surgery.

2. If you plan on future pregnancies, you should wait to have surgery until you are done having children as pregnancy will stretch the abdomen again.