Tummy Tuck Articles

I get many patients who come into my Baltimore office requesting a Tummy tuck. The Tummy tuck will give a much flatter tummy, and if they get liposuction around the love handle area, a drastic reshaping of the entire midsection. But the biggest drawback is the scar. It goes most of the time from hip bone to hip bone. Invariably, I get the question, can we do a Mini Tummy tuck? The patient is hoping to get most of what she needs with a smaller scar and a less involved surgery. What is the difference between the Tummy tuck and the Mini Tummy tuck?

Exparel is a long acting local anesthetic which is injected into the operative area at the end of the procedure. Like the pain pump, it focuses just on the operative area, and does not disseminate to the entire body like a narcotic does. The function of the Exparel is to numb the area of surgery so you do not feel pain. With cosmetic surgery, patients only need the one injection, and the pain control lasts for about 3 days. Similar to the pain pump, patients take fewer narcotics post operatively, because the pain is more controlled.

As a senior (a little over 60 years old) I had given continued thought and prayer to having Breast reduction surgery for a number of years (at least 30 or more). In the past few years the thought and prayers became more and more on my mind and approximately 2 years ago I went as far as having a consultation with a plastic surgeon. I don’t know if it was my frame of mind or exactly what all the reasons were, but I was not comfortable with the surgeon, his staff, or even the thought of continuing on with this surgery. I didn’t go back for a 2nd visit…

The question of whether to have a Tummy tuck or Liposuction is a very common one from my Baltimore patients. The two procedures address different problems. Liposuction deals only with fatty tissues, whereas Tummy tuck deals with muscle, skin, and fat. If you have loose skin,  liposuction will not address this. Some patients are candidates for liposuction only, some for Tummy tuck only, and some could have either procedure, depending on their priorities.

I asked the patient if he be interested in a procedure to tighten the muscles that was not described anywhere in the literature (this was early 90’s!) but that I could perform a surgery using techniques I was comfortable with? He agreed, signed the informed consent, and I did the procedure by making an incision around the belly button for access to the deeper tissues. The procedure went so well I immediately felt bad for all those patients on whom I had done a traditional incision to treat this problem. So if I could do this going above the belly button, why not do it for muscle separations below the belly button?

I’m sitting here waiting for my next case, a Mini Tummy Tuck. It is a natural tendency to want maximum results for minimal effort. That is why the words “mini facelift”, mini this and that, are so popular today. The main thing to remember about these procedures is that they are limited versions of the original procedure designed for patients with a minimal defect. Be aware that mini procedures can also mean mini results. Not everybody is a candidate, but some are.