Tummy Tuck Surgery Procedure Consultation Las Vegas

Tummy Tuck Cosmetic Surgery Consultation Transcript

Dr. Stile: Hello, I’m Dr. Stile. Welcome back to our excellence in cosmetic surgery series. This is video blog number 5, and today’s topic is abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck. I’m lucky enough to have one of the busiest cosmetic surgery practices in Las Vegas. I have performed over 1,000 abdominoplasties over the last nine years. This volume of patients has made me one of the most experience surgeons for this particular procedure. What we’re going to do today is go through a regular consultation for abdominoplasty with one of my patients. What we hope you’ll understand by the end of this consultation is what abdominoplasty or tummy tuck actually is; what the components are; and if you’re potentially a candidate who can benefit from this cosmetic surgery procedure. Let’s go now and take a look at the consultation.

Farrah: My name is Farrah from Sacramento, California. I moved to Vegas for entertainment. This is an awesome city if you just want to entertain and make a living. Well, I’m hoping that not only will it change my outer look, but I don’t want to be self-conscious and it’s going to help me be more marketable. I know that if I go to an audition and the costume looks fabulous on me – I can get it. But, if the costume is a lot of belly and a lot of mid, and I don’t have that looking tight next to the girl that’s all “six-packed up” with tight skin, then she’s going to get it over me.

 Dr. Stile: I’ve done over a thousand tummy tucks in the last 9 years and my patients benefit from this experience in multiple ways. Most important is shorter surgery time which means less anesthesia and the greater likelihood that they’ll get a result that will make them happy. My patients range in size from 115 pounds to 215 pounds. The operation is basically the same with respect to steps, however, the scale of the procedure is different accordingly. The first thing that’s important for my patients to understand is a little bit about anatomy, and the changes that happen with either pregnancy, massive weight gain, or a combination of the two. What we have here is an illustration of basic anatomy.

These are the rectus muscles which are in compartments on either side of the belly button. They begin at the underside of the ribs and insert down in the groin. They are touching in the mid-line. These muscles have various functions with respect to the torso. They provide stability for the back, allow the torso to twist, pick up your knees and bend your back down. However, in our conversation today, it’s the support function that’s most important. When a patient has a pregnancy or big weight gain, it has a mass effect on the inside of the abdomen. What this does is push forward. With this forward push, the most important change is the separation of the rectus muscles - the creation of the space between the two rows, which is also known as the diastasis. In addition to the separation of these muscles, we have the stretching of the skin with stretch marks created if the skin stretches a lot or quickly.

 Once our patients have their babies, lose their weight, or both, these muscles never return to their pre-pregnancy or pre-weight gain position. So, as a function of this, there is a loss of support. What this looks like in most patients is a roundness that’s most times wrongly attributed to fat.  

The steps of an abdominoplasty are as follows:

• What I do first is design a very low incision in the groin crease. I also create a second incision to release the belly button from its attachment to the skin. This allows me to lift the skin and fat off the muscle so I can see that diastasis. • What I do next is take a permanent suture and weave it between these muscles – above and below the belly button. When I tighten that, it brings the muscles back together to their original pre-pregnancy or pre-massive weight gain condition. This move restores the support to the abdomen. This suture, in fact, functions as an internal corset or girdle. This is a permanent stitch that will be with the patient for the remainder of their life.

• What I do next is fold that skin and fat down and pull downward. The extra skin fat is measured and removed. Another opening is created to retrieve the belly button through. When my patients wake up, they look something like this. The length of the incision varies with how much skin redundancy there is actually is in that patient. It’s usually a lot shorter then what’s illustrated here. There are no sutures on the skin and there are no staples used in any of my patients. All of our sutures are woven underneath the skin and usually dissolve within approximately 2-3 months. What the patients will have are two soft plastic drains - one that exits either side of the incision. These drains do not hurt while they are in, and does not hurt to remove them. What the drains do in fact is help remove any fluid that would accumulate as part of normal healing in the recovery of my patients. These drains come out at 7 and 14 days respectively. This procedure takes about an hour and a half. It is done in my surgery center, here, next door. Our center is a free-standing ambulatory surgery center which is licensed by the State of Nevada. We are also federally regulated because we’re Medicaid certified. What that means to my patients is that my facility meets the highest standards of safety equipment and personnel. All of my abdominoplasty patients are seen the next morning for their first dressing change and their wound check. They are then seen at 7 days, 14 days, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year after that. I see all of my patients once per year or often as they need to. I have over 8,000 patients in my practice and they are each seen once a year.  

Farrah: I’m definitely happy with Dr. Stile’s work. I believe that he has a definite vision for what he’s doing for me. He paid attention to my body line, he paid attention to where he put the line. It’s important that your line is going to be able to stay in the costume and that your skin stretches. I think I spent the last 4 days just going through photos, going over photos, looking at the body line so that it will fit nicely in my costumes the way I want it to and that’s important.  

Dr. Stile: If you have any questions about abdominoplasty surgery, or any of the other cosmetic surgery I perform at my practice, you can call my practice at (702) 243-9555. You can also look us up on the web at www.DrStile.com Until next time, be well!