San Francisco Tummy Tuck & Bay Area Tummy Tuck Specialist

Overview of Tummy Tuck Surgery

A Tummy Tuck or abdominoplasty is a procedure that mainly treats excess lower abdominal skin and laxity of the muscles of the abdominal wall. When a protruding abdomen is primarily due to problems with the skin and abdominal wall muscles, this operation can have a truly dramatic effect. Although this procedure can be combined with liposuction to some degree to treat the fat layers, a tummy tuck is not the right procedure for patients whose main problem is excess abdominal fat without a component of skin and muscle laxity. The biggest drawback of this operation is the size of the permanent scar that is required. Most commonly this scar extends from hip to hip but this depends on the degree of excess skin.

The procedure begins with an incision just above the pubic area and another around the navel to free the skin and fat layers from the vertical muscles of the abdominal wall. This access allows the muscles to be tightened with stitches producing a much flatter abdomen and narrower waistline. The skin and fat layers are then stretched down and the excess is removed. This also contributes to a flatter, firmer abdomen. Finally a new opening must be made for the navel which remained attached to the muscles during the operation. The final result is a tighter abdomen but a circular scar around the navel and a fairly long scar above the pubic area. In rare cases a mini-abdominoplasty can be performed which does not include an incision around the navel. The muscles can still be tightened but a much smaller amount of skin is removed since only the lower abdomen below the navel is treated.