Abdominoplasty or Tummy Tuck
Restores your aesthetic abdominal contour to compliment your body and lifestyle.
Restores your aesthetic abdominal contour to compliment your body and lifestyle.
Your desired abdominal contour is hard to maintain with age and even harder to restore following major life events.
Diet and exercise alone are unable to reverse changes to your abdominal contour caused by ageing, pregnancy and weight fluctuations that result in stretched and weakened abdominal six-pack muscles, accumulation of fat, and excess skin.
Abdominoplasty or a tummy tuck is a procedure designed to restore your aesthetic abdominal contours by tightening the six pack abdominal muscles and removing excess skin and fat to create a flat and toned tummy. In nearly all patients, ‘touch up’ liposuction is required to restore the contours and curves to improve the results.
General Anaesthesia in Hospital
Inpatient, with average hospital stay of 3 days
3-4 hours procedure
Light activities in 2 weeks when swelling and bruising resolves. Avoid strenuous activity for 6 weeks.
Compression garment for 6-12 weeks for optimal results.
Regular follow up visits. Scar management protocol for 3 – 6 months
Within three to six months and can vary depending on the patients age, quality of skin, weight and complexity of the procedure
Abdominoplasty or Tummy Tuck is best suited for women who are at their best in terms of health and physical fitness and close to or at their ideal body weight.
If dieting and exercising haven’t helped to tone the abdominal six pack muscle or tighten loose skin, surgery can help.
Patients report that one of the many benefits of abdominoplasty surgery includes feeling confident to buy clothes that fit and there is no need to hide the body shape.
Some of the other benefits of abdominoplasty surgery include:
At Forme Institute, ther are 4 main types of Tummy Tucks that we perform
A mini tummy tuck is focused on the area below the belly button. The incision is shorter and a lesser amount of skin is removed as compared to a full tummy tuck. This procedure is recommended for patients who still have abdominal muscle integrity and definition above the belly button, but extra fat or skin below the belly button.
A full tummy tuck is carried out in two layers.
A tummy tuck and liposuction is used in cases where extra fat, extra skin and muscle separation occur. The belly button is also reshaped during a tummy tuck and liposuction procedure.
Liposuction removes the extra fat underneath the skin and involves no skin
removal. The incisions are small and the procedure is used in cases where
the patient is unsatisfied with the appearance of their stomach due to fat
rather than muscle separation or extra skin.
is designed to remove extra excess skin that cannot be achieved with just a conventional tummy tuck. In addition to the horizontal incision create from a traditional tummy tuck, there will also be an incision that runs vertically up the middle of the stomach.
35 Years of Combined Experience in Plastic Surgery
If you are eligible for Medicare cover and your private health insurer has confirmed coverage.
Your total out of pocket costs are from $15,000 This includes the surgeon’s fee, surgical assistant’s fee, anesthetist’s fee, garments and after care.
The reason we have mentioned the term ‘from $15,000’ is to factor in any additional procedures like liposuction because whether you need Liposuction to contour your abdomen can only be decided at the time of the consultation.
Liposuction is a cosmetic surgery procedure and is not covered by either Medicare or your private health fund. So, if liposuction is necessary, it is important to itemize it, and pay for it separately in a manner that is transparent to your health fund.
The cost of a Tummy tuck, if I am not eligible for Medicare or health fund cover
The cost will be from $23,000 and this includes the surgeon’s fee, anesthetist’s fee, 3 nights in hospital, garments and after care.Soon after the consultation we will request a formal quote from the hospital and send it to you.
For More Details
To provide a true cost, a full consultation is required. Factors such as type of procedures, need for liposuction, recovery, etc are all contributors to final costs. For a detailed explanation, please visit our in-depth blog article. It gives a full breakdown and discusses options.
After Tummy Tuck surgery, your skin will not be in the same place after surgery. The re-arrangement of skin also changes the area’s blood vessels and lymphatic drainage. In addition, your body will require some time to recover from the new changes in your body.
Read our article to understand the recovery process on a daily and weekly basis.
There will be some tummy tuck scarring; completely removing the scars is impossible. However, we can implement some methods to hide and minimise their appearance. At Forme Institute, we have recommendations and therapies to minimise scarring.
Read our article to understand how to minimise tummy tuck scarring.
Lakeview Private – Norwest Business Park, Bella Vista
Castle Hill, The Barwell Centre Suite 25, 7–9 Barwell Avenue Castle Hill, NSW 2154 Directions
Westmead, Westmead Private Hospital Suite 2, Cnr of Mons and Darcy Road, Westmead NSW 2145 Directions
Bondi Junction, Suite 1305, 101 Grafton St, Bondi Junction
NSW 2022 Directions
Bella Vista, Suite 212, Level 2, 10 Norbrik Dr Bella Vista
NSW 2153 Directions
The best candidates for a tummy tuck are those whose excess abdominal skin and separation of the abdominal six pack muscle causes health issues such as infection, restricted movement, skin rashes, low back pain and as a result they are unable to engage in activities of daily living and physical activities resulting in a negative impact on health and wellbeing.
Tummy tuck operations are becoming increasingly popular among people of all ages and gender in Australia. Tummy tuck surgery or Abdominoplasty is a plastic surgery procedure performed under general anaesthesia in a hospital.
The tummy tuck involves
During the Tummy tuck operation, while the surgeon will go ahead and perform the tummy tuck operation, your specialist anaesthetist will monitor your safety throughout the duration of the operation. The tummy tuck operation usually takes between three to four hours, with three to four days of inpatient hospital stay. After the operation you will have drains that are removed in about three to four days, depending on the amount of draining fluid. A postoperative abdominal binder that supports the operative area.
Currently NSW Government has mandated that all cosmetic surgery operations are performed in accredited hospitals licensed and accredited to perform cosmetic surgery. As with every cosmetic surgery operation, across Australia majority of the tummy tuck operations are performed by specialist plastic surgeons all operations are performed by specialist plastic surgeons, who have years of experience in the field of cosmetic surgery.
Yes, you will need a full general anaesthesia for a tummy tuck as a twilight or local anaesthesia is not adequate to give you the safe level of sedation or pain relief during the procedure. The only exception is if you have a mini tummy tuck or mini abdominoplasty.
It is important to understand the difference between a mini tummy tuck and a full tummy tuck. A mini tummy tuck is when only a small amount of skin is removed from the abdominal area. Mini tummy tuck only provides very minimal tightening of the skin and no true tissue tightening of the abdominal muscles. In a full tummy tuck, a longer incision from the hip to hip to remove a significant amount of skin that is then vertically stitched up taking a large amount of fat with it. The muscles are tightened substantially, creating a flatter, more stable abdomen and the skin is trimmed and tightened in the midline.
A mini tummy tuck that involves excising only the excess skin can be performed under sedation with local an anaesthesia supplementation. But this depends on a case-by-case basis and your plastic surgeon will be able to give you that information at the time of the first consultation.
If you have a full tummy tuck, you will need to stay as an inpatient for a few days to help the healing process. So, it is not appropriate for the full tummy tuck to be performed as a day surgery case. If you have a ‘mini tummy tuck’ you will be able to go home the same day. A mini tummy tuck involves removal of small amount of excess skin only and no repair of the separated muscle.
The NSW government has mandated that all cosmetic surgery operations (like tummy tucks) are performed in accredited hospitals and day surgery facilities that are licensed and accredited to perform cosmetic surgery.
Yes, you will have minimum of two drains after your tummy tuck to help with the drainage of the excess fluid. In the first 24 hours, the drainage fluid volume will be very low because you will be resting a lot. Once you start to mobilize and walk about a bit more, the amount of fluid that will drain will be quite significant this initial rise in output will gradually taper and settle down. When the amount of fluid drainage is less than 25 mls in 24 hours, your plastic surgeon will recommend the drains can come out. This usually occurs around day 3 or day 4 post op. Occasionally, the drainage will persist beyond the usual 3 days. In that case, your plastic surgeon may, will make a provision for you to go home with the drain, with daily recording of the fluid volume once this daily volume reduces to under 25 mls, the drains will be removed. You will require antibiotics while the drains are in.
Most of the sutures in a tummy tuck will be dissolving. The successful results of Tummy tuck depend on meticulous suturing of multiple layers, the choice and strength of the suture materials. There are specialized barbed sutures that are used to repair, tighten, and reinforce the separated six pack muscle layer. There are specialized deep sutures used to repair, tighten, and reinforce the strong fascial layers. And the final layer of skin closure will, is usually done using dissolving sutures. That means you do not need to take them out.
There will invariably be a special dressing on the skin wound that will be removed in two weeks to reveal a well healed wound of the abdomen.
Yes, you will need a course of antibiotics after tummy tuck surgery, and often plastic surgeons will put you on oral antibiotics if you have a drain in once the drains come out there is usually no need for antibiotics to continue.
You will have bruising after tummy tuck surgery because the surgery is quite extensive and involves a large body surface area. In addition, as a part of the body contouring operation liposuction is usually performed to remove excess fat to contour the abdomen and the flanks. Liposuction will cause bruising, but the bruising will settle down over the course of 10 days. Bruising is basically the blood staining of tissues. The blood cells that leak out of the blood vessels are responsible for staining the tissues. Bruising often starts dark blue or blackish in colour and over 10 days will go through lighter shades before turning light pink, yellow and finally disappears.
A hematoma means there is excessive amount of bleeding for tummy tuck surgery that can cause a very large clot under the skin. This clot, unlike clots in the calves or the lungs does not spread, does not get into veins, and does not enter the lungs or the heart. However, the hematoma will need to be addressed. The outcome will depend on the size of the hematoma. If it is a large one you can end up with a contour deformity or an infection or both. Large hematomas need to be evacuated and removed under general anaesthesia in the operating theatre where you need to open the wound, remove the clot and resuture the skin. Thankfully this is quite rare.
It is natural that you will feel like stopping over after the operation. This is a normal response to the surgery. Fortunately, this does not last for very long and your body will adapt very quickly. In fact, within the first few days, you will be able to stand straight. And even if you don’t manage to stand straight in the first week because of your body’s protective posturing mechanisms, you’ll be able to feel more comfortable within two weeks when you stand straight and do not feel too tight.
The tummy tuck operation will take on an average about three hours. It can take less than three hours or more depending on how complex the operation is and what needs to be fixed during the operation. For example, if the patient is a very large person who has lost a lot of weight and needs extended abdominoplasty or a fleur de lys abdominoplasty, then the operation will take much longer than say somebody who needs a mini tummy tuck, or a very small full abdominoplasty. If there is the need to reposition the belly button, to tighten and correct muscle separation, to body contour by liposuction it all adds to the operating time of the tummy tuck surgery.
The most comfortable position is to lie on your back with bent hips and bent knees. And this can be facilitated by the simple action of placing two pillows under your knee, so that the backs of your knees rest on those two pillows. When you are lying-in bed, this will reduce the tension on the tummy area especially the hip-to-hip scar.
The other important fact to consider is getting in and out of bed. Rotational movement of your body is hard because your abdominal muscles have been repaired and they will feel tight and uncomfortable. Getting in and out of the bed will be a bit slower for the first 4 weeks then with practice you’ll be able to achieve this seamlessly. Similarly, getting in and out of a car will be slow during the first two weeks and will gradually get easier.
Soon after tummy tuck surgery, your abdomen, flanks, and pubic area will swell as a response to surgery and liposuction. The swelling is a natural response to any surgical operation. The lymphatic circulation either becomes extremely sluggish or comes to a standstill temporarily after surgery. Therefore, the fluid drainage becomes slow and sluggish. In addition, the production of fluid in the surgical site increases after the operation due to fluid leaking from the leaky and dilated blood vessels. This response is essential for the healing of tissues, but the side effect is the swelling.
The production of fluid and the accumulation of fluid usually overwhelms the ability of the body’s lymphatic system to drain the fluid and therefore, there is swelling and fluid pooling at multiple levels. This results in feeling tight, swollen, and bloated.
Compression garments used after the surgery is effective in reducing the swelling and promoting healing. Once you start mobilizing and walking, the lymphatic circulation will start functioning that will help resolution of the swelling.
You can fast track the swelling reduction by lymphatic massage done by a specialist lymphatic massage therapist. The therapist will use short, swift, and gentle strokes rather than deep tissue massage, to start to mobilize the fluid that has been pooled in the areas around the tummy tuck surgical site. Lymphatic massage can be done soon after the surgery.
Patients who have attained their ideal weight and who are fit and healthy and are prepared to go through an operation and be diligent in following all the post-operative instructions for 4- 6 weeks are ideal candidates.
It is equally important that patients must remain committed to a healthy lifestyle post-surgery to maintain the results for a very long time. Patient should have completed the family. Because if you do fall pregnant post tummy tuck, there’s a risk of undoing the structural repair performed at the time of the tummy tuck.
Patients who are concerned about their abdominal skin and contour changes post pregnancy, post weight loss changes or changes due to ageing of the abdomen are good candidates.
Take a look at before and after
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