Abdominoplasty Gallery

A mother of 3 in her early 50’s who is bothered by bulging and rolls of the abdomen> She has had previous laparoscopic gallbladder surgery. She is 5’6 and 146 lbs. Her photos are shown before and again, 11 months after surgery. Her case is made more challenging by a higher position of her umbilicus. In a normal abdominoplasty when the skin is elevated up to the rib cage and then pulled down like a window-shade and removed, the skin that was around the umbilicus is completed removed and falls below the abdominoplasty scar. But in this case, when the abdominal skin is elevated and pulled down like a window shade, the slit of the scar from around the umbilicus sits higher and is closed as a small vertical ( up and down) scar, allowing the abdominoplasty scar to stay low, in a “thong” position where it is hidden by most clothing styles. An alternative procedure when the umbilicus is high is an umbilical “float” where the umbilicus is detached at its base and pulled down slightly lower-but this does not work as well when the upper abdominal skin is also loose because the “sheet” of skin is not able to be pulled as tight.
In cases such as here, it is better to keep the abdominoplasty scar in the “thong” position where it is low enough to be hidden by yoga pants and bikini bottoms, and accept a small vertical slit scar that shows, rather than putting the entire scar higher where it cannot be hidden.

A mother of 3 ( including twins) in her early 40’s who is bothered by bulging and loose skin of her abdomen. She would like to be comfortable wearing fitted clothing. She is 4’10” and 124 lbs and is shown before and again, 11 months after an extended abdominoplasty. She has severe stretching of the abdominal wall from her pregnancies and her umbilicus is deviated to her right. An attempt was made to bring it closer to the midline with differential tightening of the muscle wall. She has had an excellent correction of her abdominal contour and loves being able to wear fitted clothes and t shirts now. The fat has been sculpted in the abdomen to give her a midline groove and a hollow around the umbilicus. Her scar has been placed in a thong position.

A mother of 2 in her early 40’s who is bothered by the appearance of her stomach. She was especially concerned about the scar placement and wanted to make sure that it would be placed in a thong position where it would be hidden by most clothing styles. She is shown before and again, 1 year after an extended abdominoplasty. EXPAREL was used during surgery to decrease her need for narcotics after surgery. Progressive Tension Sutures were placed at the time of surgery to decrease the risk of seroma. Her scar placement is 6.5 cm from the vaginal fornix to keep the scar low, in a “ thong” position. Tattoos have been blurred for her privacy. Nearly 5 lbs of skin were removed with the extended abdominoplasty.

A mother of 2 in her late 50’s who is bothered by bulging of her abdomen in clothing. She felt that her left side bulged more and on exam was noted to had an inguinal hernia on that side. She has had 2 C-sections. Her umbilicus is relatively high and in her case we “floated” the umbilicus by pulling it down lower, avoiding a scar around the umbilicus and a midline scar from the umbilical slit in the lower abdomen. She is shown before and again, more than 3 years after her extended abdominoplasty with floating of the umbilicus. Her inguinal hernia was repaired by General Surgery at the same time. Her scar is placed low in a “thong” position where it is hidden by most clothing styles.

Discussion: Floating of the umbilicus is a technique that I find useful in patients with a relatively high umbilicus that do not have much looseness in the upper stomach and wish to avoid a scar around the umbilicus and a vertical slit scar in the lower abdomen. The umbilicus is detached at its base and brought down lower, instead of cutting around the top of the umbilicus and popping it back up through in the new position. It does not “pull the sheet tight” in the upper abdomen as much as with a traditional technique but can work well in some cases as shown here. Liposuction was used to form a midline groove above the umbilicus. The abdominal muscles are still tightened and bring in the waist and correct the muscle bulge. Her incision is “extended” to allow better tightening of the sides and has higher tension placed on the sides to better shape the stomach.

A mother of 3, including twins, in her mid 40’s. She had gained 70 lbs with her pregnancy and “carried large”. She also had a hernia of the muscle wall above the umbilicus. (a ventral hernia).
Exparel was used during her surgery as part of our Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) protocol. Exparel is a Liposomal Marcaine, an injection placed at the time of surgery that slowly breaks down and releases long-acting local anesthetic for the first 72 hours after surgery. Pain varies between patients but she was amazed that she did not require any narcotics after surgery, and stopped taking ibuprofen after two weeks. She reports that she is already down in size from a 10/8 to a 6.
She is 5’5” and 149 lbs and is shown just 6 weeks after her surgery. Her ventral hernia was repaired at the same time by general surgery. It is early to show her result, because swelling will continue to go away over the next 5 months and the scars will continue to fade for the next two years. Nonetheless, the early results are dramatic. She is thrilled to be able to wear fitted clothes now. The oblique view shows the “champagne groove” and the hollow around the umbilicus that were sculpted at the time of surgery.

Update: Our patient is now seen nearly 14 months after her abdominoplasty. Her scars have faded and are hidden in a “thong” position. She is thrilled to be able to wear fitted blouses and
dresses again.

A mother of 3 in her later 50’s who is bothered by excess skin and bulging of her abdomen after pregnancies that makes it difficult to wear fitted clothing. She is 5’4” and 148 lbs and is shown before and again, 8 ½ months after abdominoplasty .

Exparel was used during her surgery as part of our Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) protocol. Exparel is a Liposomal Marcaine, an injection placed at the time of surgery that slowly breaks down and releases long-acting local anesthetic for the first 72 hours after surgery. It has been shown to decrease the need for narcotics after surgery by 70%.

Her case illustrates the challenge of a relatively high umbilicus ( belly button). When the umbilicus is lower, and the skin is looser, then the skin is removed entirely from just above the umbilicus to the mons pubis. When the skin is not as loose and the umbilicus is higher, then this skin that was originally around the umbilicus is still present at the end. If the upper abdomen was not loose, then a cut could be made deep to the umbilicus , puling it down a little lower, a so called “umbilical float” or a “floating of the umbilicus”. This would not have allowed us to “ pull the sheet tight” and smooth her upper abdomen. Another option would have been to place the lower abdominal scar much higher, in the mid-abdomen. This is usually not a good tradeoff, because it is more attractive to have this lower scar in the “thong position” where the lower edge is 6 ½-7 cm from the vaginal area. The third option, which was chosen in her case, is to close the small opening from the skin that previously surrounded the umbilicus. as a small vertical slit. This does leave a small scar somewhere between the umbilicus position and lower abdominal scar, but is the best tradeoff in her case.
This scar as with all of the scars will continue to fade and improve for two years or more after surgery. Her umbilicus was initially deviated to the right. During surgery I use a “plumb line” of a temporary silk suture while I tighten the muscles that are stretched by pregnancy to guide me in trying to bring the umbilicus back to the middle.

A mother of 2 in her later 50’s who had a lap band in 2007, that was removed in 2014 and then had an endoscopic gastric sleeve in 2014. She has lost 100 lbs and been at a stable weight for the last 2 years. She is bothered by fullness and laxity of the abdominal skin and would like to be able to wear fitted clothing.
She is shown before and again, nearly 7 months after an extended abdominoplasty with the removal of nearly 5 lbs of skin. She was 5 feet tall and 139 lbs before her surgery. She is thrilled with the improvement of her abdomen and loves catching sight of herself in a mirror now when she walks by in her fitted clothing. Exparel was used to limit her need for narcotics after surgery, and progressive tension sutures were uses to decrease her risk of seroma formation. Her scar is placed low, in a thong position, where it is most easily hidden by clothing.
As is typical in a patient with significant weight loss she continues to have some looseness of the skin of the

upper abdomen, but not enough in her mind to trade it for a vertical scar ( Fleur de Lis abdominoplasty)

A mother of 3 in her early 60’s who has lost significant weight after an endoscopic gastric sleeve 2 years before. She is bothered by the “pouch” of her abdomen that makes it difficult to wear fitted clothes. She is shown before and again, 6 months after an extended abdominoplasty.

A mother of 2 in her early 30’s who is bothered by bulging and laxity of her abdomen. She is 5’3” and 146 lbs and is shown just before and again, 6 weeks after an abominoplasty. Exparel was used to limit her postoperative need for narcotics. Progressive tension sutures were used to decrease her risk of seroma. Scars are typically at their thickest and reddest at 6 weeks and will then begin to fade and improve over the next 2 years. Her abdominal incision is placed low, in a “thong” position, where it is hidden by most clothing styles. There is typically still significant swelling in the abdominal skin a the 6 week mark that takes 6 months to fully resolve. Having said that, she has an excellent contour already, and tightening of the loose abdominal muscles have given her a nice waistline.

A mother of 3 ( including twins) in her early 40’s who is bothered by bulging and loose skin of her abdomen. She would like to be comfortable wearing fitted clothing. She is 4’10” and 124 lbs and is shown before and again, 4 ½ months after an extended abdominoplasty. She has severe stretching of the abdominal wall from her pregnancies and her umbilicus is deviated to her right. An attempt was made to bring it closer to the midline with the tightening of the muscle wall but it remains deviated to the right. Despite this, she has had an excellent correction of her abdominal contour and loves being able to wear fitted clothes and t shirts now.

Update: Our patient is now seen at 8 months. All swelling has resolved and the scars continue to fade and improve.