Abdominoplasty & Panniculectomy to Improve Hemoglobin A1C, Hypertension, and Cholesterol

It is quite common that people with diabetes, htn, and cholesterol wish to undergo abdominoplasty procedures to improve their abdominal contour. I tell patients that it is best for all medical conditions to be controlled and optimized prior to abdominoplasty or panniculectomy surgery.

It is quite common that these medical conditions often improve after abdominoplasty or panniculectomy surgery. Patients require a reduction in their dose of anti-hypertensive medication, their blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C levels improve, and so can some conditions such as back pain improve.

www.drbriandickinson.com



Abdominoplasty in the Weight Loss Patient

Abdominoplasty or body contouring procedures are common following gastric bypass surgery such as roux-y gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy.

After patients have lost weight and their weight has stabilized, they are candidates for body contouring procedures.

The abdominoplasty helps to restore the contour to the abdominal wall that is traditionally lost following weight gain. Often, when patients lose weight, they have excess skin which can be bothersome. The excess skin is often a reminder that they would like to get rid of.

Patient satisfaction is high following body contouring procedures.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Abdominoplasty in Male Patients

Abdominoplasty procedures are becoming more common in men these days. Men often go to the gym to lift weights or increase their amount of cardiac exercise to lose weight. The resulting excess skin that men accumulate often does not dissipate without a skin resection. That is the abdominoplasty procedure in men is typically a skin excision only and does not include the abdominal muscle plication that is normally performed in a female. That being said, men often feel great after abdominoplasty procedures. As such, men often want to return to the gym or to exercise very early. It is important for men to rest in the post-operative period. Too much activity can create shear between the skin and the abdominal wall and promote the development of a seroma.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Body Contouring and Abdominoplasty

Abdominoplasty and Body Contouring procedures such as breast reduction and mastopexy procedures are common. Typically after these procedures, patients continue to lose weight. Prior to the abdominoplasty procedure, the stomach, small intestines, and large intestines all have a certain amount of room for food. After the abdominoplasty, there is a reduction in abdominal domain and patients often develop early satiety.

Typically patients continue to lose weight. It is also common for patients to lose weight following breast reduction surgery. After breast reduction surgery patients are able to return to exercise and continue to lose weight. The breast reduction in combination with the tummy tuck surgery is very powerful.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Abdominoplasty

Abdominoplasty procedures are common. The abdominoplasty procedure requires an incision from hip to hip. During the procedure, the skin is elevated from the abdominal wall and the borders of the rectus abdominis muscles are identified. The umbilical stalk remains on the body wall. The rectus muscles are then plicated in the midline of the abdomen. The plication tightens the abdominal muscles and restores the abdominal contour. Any excess skin that then “re-drapes” over the lower abdomen is then excises. Drains are placed in the lower abdomen and usually remain in place for approximately one week to ten days.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Abdominoplasty

Patients often request abdominoplasty procedures after they have delivered several children. After childbirth, the muscles of the abdominal wall are stretched out. Patients often state, that no matter how many sit-ups they do, they can just never improve the contour of their lower abdomen.

After an abdominoplasty, the lower abdomen gains a better level of overall tension. The lower muscles are now able to hold in the contents of the abdominal domain and the overall contour of the abdomen is improved.

Patient satisfaction is very high following abdominoplasty.

www.drbriandickinson.com



Abdominoplasty

Abdominoplasty is one of the more commonly performed cosmetic operations in our practice. There is a high satisfaction rate in patients who have undergone this procedure.


The abdominoplasty procedure lasts approximately 3 hours. The procedure is performed under a general anesthetic, so the patient does not see, hear, or feel anything during the procedure.  A long acting local anesthetic is administered during the procedure, so there is minimal pain along the incision site. Patients mostly describe a "tightness" along their midline from the plication sutures that bring the rectus muscles back toward the midline.


Drains are placed beneath the skin and exit from the pubic region. Drains are typically left in place for one to two weeks. An abdominal binder is to be worn at all times for 4-6 weeks.

www.drbriandickinson.com



Abdominoplasty & Hernia Repair

Abdominoplasty procedures are common operations. Patients who present for abdominoplasty procedures often have laxity of their abdominal wall from childbirth as well as lax abdominal wall skin.

During an abdominoplasty operation, the lower abdominal skin is excised, the rectus muscles are repaired in the midline of the abdomen, and the umbilicus is then delivered through a new location in the abdominal wall skin.

When the rectus muscles are tightened, the abdominal contour improves. When the rectus muscles are brought back into their location, the entire function of the abdominal wall tends to improve.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Abdominoplasty

Abdominoplasty procedures are commonly performed to tighten up the abdominal wall. Typically after multiple pregnancies, women have developed a laxity of the abdominal wall that can not be improved with diet and exercise.

Any underlying hernias are repaired at the same time that the abdominal wall is repaired. Repair of the abdominal wall is accomplished with plication sutures that bring the rectus muscles together in the midline.

Typically after 4 weeks, patients are able to visualize the improvement in their abdominal contour. Patients who undergo abdominoplasty procedures have a high satisfaction rate.

 

www.drbriandickinson.com

 

Abdominoplasty: The Umbilical Contour

Abdominoplasty procedures are commonly performed to improve the abdominal contour. It is important when contouring the abdomen, to pay attention to the belly button. Not only is belly button position important, but so is the overall shape and how it heals. Healing can be unpredictable with several factors such as genetic make-up, diet, etc. having significant factors..

I prefer to use interrupted half-buried Nylon sutures to place the belly button. I find the Nylon sutures to be the least reactive and when placing them in a half-buried fashion, it tends to prevent the formation of track marks on the skin.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Abdominoplasty to Restore the Lower Abdomen

Abdominoplasty is a commonly performed procedure. Typically patients come to our offices who have been exercising for quite some time, but who have difficulty tightening their lower abdomen. After childbirth, the lower abdomen can become significantly loose and distended. Often times, the lower abdomen will not "tighten-up" despite sit-ups or crunches.

Abdominoplasty procedures can be helpful to tighten the lower abdomen. During an abdominoplasty, a muscle plication is performed where the lower abdominal muscles are brought back into their normal position.

Patients are often very happy following an abdominoplasty as their lower abdomen is often returned to their "pre-baby" appearance.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Abdominoplasty Surgery

Abdominoplasty procedures are commonly performed operations. It is common for patients to present in our office who are physically fit, spend significant time in the gym, but have difficulty losing a specific are of fat or skin above their belt-line. Despite strict diet and exercise, the skin and fat seem to never dissipate.

Abdominoplasty can be a good way for these patients to lose the extra skin and fat above their belt line. Often after a tummy tuck operation, patients continue to lose weight because they are more motivated to go to the gym, feel more comfortable in exercise clothing, and often the muscle placation from the tummy tuck causes patients to feel full after eating. It is important that patients continue to consume a diet rich in protein following aesthetic surgical procedures.


www.drbriandickinson.com

Abdominoplasty

Abdominoplasty and hernia repairs are procedures that are commonly performed simultaneously. Umbilical hernias, ventral hernias, and C-section hernias can be accessed through standard abdominoplasty incisions to gain access to the above mentioned hernias.


The lower abdominal incision allows excellent exposure of the hernias and then for excision of the excess skin and fat. The body undergoes significant transformation following abdominoplasty. Not only does the patient continue to experience significant weight loss post-operatively, but also the posture of the body tends to improve.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Improving Abdominal Contour with Abdominoplasty

The abdominal contour can often be improved with hernia repair and tummy tuck operations when used in combination. Typically, I tell patients that after they undergo tummy tuck and hernia repair operations, that they will often feel very full soon after eating meals.

Prior to the tummy tuck operation, when the abdominal domain is expanded, there is more room in the abdomen for food. After the operation, the abdominal muscles are tightened and there is less room in the abdomen for patients to digest food. As a result, patients tend to get full sooner after surgery. It is important that patients eat protein such as chicken, fish, meat, or beans, prior to eating their carbohydrates.


www.drbriandickinson.com

Managing Supra-Umbilical Scars in Abdominoplasty

It is typically said that supra-umbilical scars or "scars above the belly-button" can impair healing in abdominoplasty incisions. I have found that often this problem can be circumvented by excising the abdominal scar completely. Often the midline scar can be revised and/or excised and closed, which is a technique often used in body contouring to remove excess skin from the trunk in the vertical direction in addition to the horizontal direction.

It is common after abdominoplasty for patient to experience "early satiety" after meals as there is less abdominal domain. Typically, patients get full during their meals much more quickly. Because of this, patients tend to lose a significant amount of weight post-operatively following their meals. I encourage patients to consume at least 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight following surgery.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Abdominoplasty & Mastopexy Augmentation

Mastopexy augmentation and abdominoplasty when performed in combination can be quite a powerful combination to overall total body aesthetics.

During mastopexy augmentation or simultaneous breast lift and breast augmentation, a breast implant is placed as in a standard augmentation and at the same time, the nipple areola complex is elevated to a much higher position on the chest. When this is performed alone, the result can restore a youthful appearance to the breast.

When an abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck, is performed at the same time, the contour of the abdomen can be significantly improved which even further improves the aesthetic proportion of the breast.

Many patients are very happy with this combined procedure. We see many patients around the holiday season who wish to undergo simultaneous mastopexy/augmentation and abdominoplasty as the holiday season offers an opportunity to rest and recover in Newport Beach, California.

Mini-Tummy Tuck and Liposuction

It is quite common for women to present in our office who have lower abdominal laxity as well as localized deposits of fat around the abdomen. Often these women do not wish to undergo a full abdominoplasty and would rather keep their scars to a minimum.

Often patients may have a prior cesarean section scar that can be used to gain access to the lower abdominal muscles that need to be tightened. Often these scars can be revised at the same time that the lower abdominal muscles are tightened.

Liposuction can commonly be performed at the same time that the lower abdominal muscles are tightened to remove fat from the upper abdomen, the flanks, the lower back, and bra fat.

The photograph above demonstrates before and after photographs of a patient after “mini-tummy tuck” and liposuction of the abdomen, flanks, lower back, and bra fat.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Abdominoplasty Surgery. Body Recontouring

Abdominoplasty surgery is one of the more common procedures performed for body contouring. Typically, the scar is marked in a pre-existing crease along the abdomen. During the surgery the skin is raised off of the anterior abdominal wall and the muscle and fascia beneath the skin is recontoured. Often during this time, any hernias around the umbilicus or hernias from prior C-section scars can be repaired and then the fascia of the abdomen tightened on top of the hernia repair. Then the skin is re-draped over the new abdominal contour and any excess skin is removed.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Muscle Plication and Hernia Repair

It is quite common to see patients in our office who present with a chief complaint of either and umbilical hernia, and incisional hernia from a prior c-section, as well as myofascial weakness. Typically these patients which to undergo repair of their hernia and also have their myofascial weakness repaired at the same time. Quite commonly many women have weakness of their abomdinal wall from prior childbirth. At the time of hernia repair we can also reconstruct the muscles of the abdominal wall to improve the appearance and contour of the abdomen.

www.drbriandickinson.com

Abdominoplasty to Remove Unwanted Stretch Marks

It is common for many women to present in our office wishing to remove the extra tissue from their lower abdomen as well as unwanted stretch marks. During an abdominoplasty procedure, the tissue from the lower abdomen is removed typically from a point 6 cm above the vulvar commissure to a level above the umbilicus or "belly button. This skin excision almost invariably removes the unwanted stretch marks from the lower abdomen.
During the abdominoplasty the rectus diastasis is plicated to bring the rectus muscles back to their core position. Patients typically notice a continued loss in weight as the capacity of their stomach for food is greatly reduced. It is important to keep protein intake high in the post-operative period.

http://www.drbriandickinson.com/