Liposuction for Fat Deposits

Liposuction is the ideal solution for fatty deposits, but with one caveat. A liposuction procedure uses cannulas to suck out fat from the body. The skin then tightens and the area is smooth and contoured correctly. Liposuction works beautifully on parts of the body where there are small pockets of fat to be reduced and contoured. It does not work as well on areas of the body where the skin is not able to bounce back and smooth out correctly. Often, with severe weight loss and baby weight, this is case on the abdomen.

Tummy Tuck for Fat Deposits

A tummy tuck procedure, on the other hand, is ideal for removing both the fatty pockets and the loose skin as well. In a tummy tuck procedure, the surgeon cuts away a large fan of skin along the lower midsection. He then tightens the muscles under the skin as necessary before pulling the remaining skin down smoothly over the abdomen. A wide incision is left along the pubic line, but over time this scar fades. The abdomen that remains is smooth, sculpted and free of the bulges that fatty deposits and loose skin can leave behind.

Determining which procedure is best for unsightly bulges or awkward lumps of fat is usually a case of your skin condition more than anything. Skin that does not snap back quickly is not suited to liposuction. But skin that is easily reshaped and not stretched saves the patient a great deal of recovery since liposuction is more suitable.

A Good Friend

Perhaps the most important thing you’ll need on the day of the surgery is a good friend or family member. When you have your surgery, the surgeon will be using anesthesia. Once you wake up, you’ll be uncomfortable from the surgery as well as under the influence of the anesthesia, which makes you groggy. You will need a friend or family member to take you home and help you over the first days of your recovery. If you don’t have a friend or family member suited to this, you can arrange to spend some time in a recovery center where nurses and assistants will help.

Loose Clothing

During the surgery, the doctor will place drains in your abdomen. The drains will help to reduce swelling, but they may be in place for days, perhaps even weeks after the procedure. During this time, the abdomen will be uncomfortable from the surgery as well. Rather than wearing pants, even sweatpants, with a waistband that can aggravate the midsection, loose dresses are comfortable to wear and easier to handle when it is time to empty drains and get dressed.

To coordinate a tummy tuck and hysterectomy, the patient will need to work with two different doctors. The surgeon performing the hysterectomy will need to be informed and consulted with in regard to the patient’s choices for the tummy tuck procedure. The plastic surgeon will need to coordinate with the attending surgeon so that the two procedures can occur back-to-back in the operating room.

For the patient, the surgeries blend well together. The surgeon performing the hysterectomy will make the necessary incision to open the abdomen and remove the uterus and perhaps surrounding tissues. While the incision is open, the surgeon will then step in after the uterus is removed to widen the incision as necessary, tighten the muscles and underlying tissue of the abdomen and dissect the belly button.

He will then pull the skin down along the abdomen dramatically before trimming off the excess portions. The skin will be repositioned on the abdomen, the belly button will be replaced correctly in a new incision and the incisions will all be stitched carefully.

Normally the recovery time for a hysterectomy is almost the same as the recovery time for a tummy tuck. This makes the processes a good match to be performed together and it is essentially a way to get a “two-for-one” procedure. Even if the procedure are performed at the same time, however, the patient will be required to pay for the non essential part of the procedure.

Childbirth via cesarean is not an elective procedure. In the vast majority of cases, the c-section delivery is medically necessary for the mother or the baby. A tummy tuck procedure, on the other hand, is not a medically necessary procedure. Most doctors refuse to perform the two surgeries together for medical reasons.

When a baby is born, the mother has been pregnant for nine months. The hormones of pregnancy have contributed to the shape of the mother’s body and immediately after delivery an entirely new flood of hormones appear ready to continue to change and adapt the mother’s body to motherhood. These hormones along with the overstretched muscles of pregnancy and the swollen uterus make it virtually impossible for a surgeon to perform a full tummy tuck.

While there is no full tummy tuck procedure available with a c-section, many surgeons are more than willing to make a “wide incision” to remove all of the scar tissue that remains after the surgery, especially if a mother has had previous deliveries. With a wide incision, the surgeon is able to perform what amounts to a very mini tummy tuck. A bit of extra skin is removed to help the tummy smooth out as it heals although there will still be scarring and a raised ridge from the surgery that can only be helped with a fully tummy tuck procedure.

The Skin of the Abdomen

Neither a tummy tuck nor liposuction is considered a weight loss procedure. Both procedures offer a contouring option for patients looking for a smoother midsection, and the skin of the stomach makes a large difference in which procedure you ultimately choose. If the patient’s skin is loose, sagging or has scars and stretch marks, choosing liposuction will do very little to make an improvement as the skin will simply sag more. A tummy tuck, on the other hand, will remove the damaged skin.

The Placement of Tummy Fat

Strangely enough, the positioning of the fat on your abdomen has a lot to do with the choice of procedure. If you have a large amount of fat around the center of your belly – circling your belly button, for instance, the tummy tuck is the best option to smooth down the midsection. A few extra pounds of fat around the lower abdomen, on the other hand, can easily be removed with liposuction, provided the skin is elastic enough to snap back into position correctly.

While some patients choose between liposuction and a tummy tuck, still others realize that the best benefits come from having both procedures. A tummy tuck removes large sections of damaged skin while the liposuction helps to smooth out the skin around the newly reshaped midsection.

Squeeze Your Drains

When you leave surgery, your surgeon will have left two or possibly four drains in position to help you remove the excess fluid from your abdomen. The drains collect the fluid that leads to swelling and help keep the area of your surgery from becoming inflamed. You’ll have to empty the bulbs from the drains regularly and then, as you reattach them, give the bulbs a good squeeze to remove the extra fluid and provide suction to draw more swelling out of your body and heal more quickly.

Move Regularly

It can be tempting to sit still and wait for your recovery to happen. Moving can make your injuries feel more uncomfortable, but moving is actually far better for you in terms of recovery than too much rest. Balance your rest and your movement by making it a point to keep moving around your house – walk to the bathroom, walk to the kitchen, cruise around a bit while you’re talking on the phone. Take a slow walk around the block. Circulating the blood without raising your blood pressure will make your incisions heal more quickly.

Get Long Amounts of Sleep

Go to bed early and try to sleep late. You’ll wake up a bit stiff in the morning, but the long periods of deep sleep and rest are giving your muscles and body time to recover and heal without interruption. Be sure that your bed is comfortable and that you’re able to sleep for as long as your body needs to at night before you carefully rise and begin your day anew.

You Have Excessive Stretch Marks

If you have large and prominent stretch marks reaching up your belly past your belly button, a mini tummy tuck isn’t going to do a thing to help you remove them. The tummy tuck procedure starts well above your navel while the mini tummy tuck works just in the few inches above the pubic region.

You Have Overstretched Skin

If the skin on your abdomen is severely stretched to the point that you can grab handfuls of it or your belly “falls” when you bend over or lay on your side, a mini tummy tuck isn’t going to remove this damaged skin well enough to make it worthwhile. The fully tummy tuck is the best way to remove large areas of skin.

You Have Pockets of Fat

If you have a small pouch of fat just above the pubic region and below the navel, the mini tummy tuck will remove that tissue and smooth the area down correctly. If you have fat that falls above that small pouch – perhaps a pocket right over the navel that is left after childbirth, the mini tummy tuck won’t resolve that issue and you’ll need the full version to remove the fat and skin and then pull down the remaining smooth skin and tissue correctly.

Tummy Tucks Aren’t Weight Loss Surgery

There is a perception that a tummy tuck is the perfect way to lose some of that extra fat around your midsection. This is true only in one sense of the world. A tummy tuck is a major surgery that involves a very lengthy recovery process. If you’ve dieted, exercised and tried everything under the sun to lose the fat, liposuction may remove the pockets of fat that remain. A tummy tuck is more effective for sagging skin and tissue that cannot be fixed by any other means.

Tummy Tucks Aren’t Permanent

The tummy tuck surgery you undergo to flatten your tummy in your twenties won’t last into your forties if you decide to get pregnant and have a baby or if you gain a great deal of weight. Removing excess skin from your abdomen means the skin can still stretch out to accommodate weight or pregnancy, and it will – resulting in a loss of the progress from the surgery.

Tummy Tucks Require a Long Recovery

A tummy tuck isn’t the sort of surgery you can take a long weekend to recover from. When you undergo a tummy tuck, you’ll need to spend up to a month recovering at home before you’re released to go back to work in some cases. While many are back at work in a week or two, which may use up all of the vacation time you’d stored and leaves you without sick days to return to the doctor for follow-up appointments.

The Mini Tummy Tuck is Less Expensive

The mini tummy tuck is really just a partial tummy tuck. The surgery is less invasive and doesn’t require dissecting the belly button in order to pull down a large section of skin. The mini tummy tuck focuses just on skin under the belly button, which is a smaller surgery and costs less.

The Mini Tummy Tuck has a Smaller Scar

Not only does the mini tummy tuck have less involved, it creates a smaller scar as well. The mini tummy tuck easily removes the extra skin and fat from the lower abdomen before pulling just that portion of skin taut. The incision is smaller following the surgery and the scarring is far less as well.

The Mini Tummy Tuck has a Faster Recovery Period

Who wouldn’t want to be up around in a matter of days following a surgery? With a mini tummy tuck, patients are able to get up, move around and be back to a normal way of life in a considerably shorter period of time than those who have had a full tummy tuck.

Wait if You’re Still Considering Pregnancy

If you’re thinking about having another baby, there is no need to have a tummy tuck now. A tummy tuck smooths away the stretched skin and fatty deposits that are left after your baby is born, but if you have a tummy tuck and then decide to have another child, the tummy tuck won’t harm the pregnancy in any way, but the results of your surgery will be undone.

You’re Overweight

It’s tempting to think that a tummy tuck will remove those last ten pounds if you’re overweight, but in truth a tummy tuck only removes about four pounds of fat from the body, and it’s a contouring surgery, not a weight loss one. If you’re overweight, you need to lose those pounds first before considering the surgery. Not only will you heal faster, but the results will be much more striking as well.

You’re Unhealthy

If you have unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking heavily or the use of several different medications, a tummy tuck is not an ideal procedure at this particular moment. Smoking and certain medications can delay healing following a tummy tuck, and surgeons will require patients stop smoking before they move forward with the surgery. Taking the time to quit smoking, scale back drinking and getting over any lingering health concerns prior to surgery can make a dramatic difference in how quickly and how well the patient heals, and if the surgeon will even consider performing the surgery at all.