How much skin is removed with Tummy Tuck?

Описание: Dr. Burgess answers one of the most asked questions about the Tummy Tuck. Learn more at Burgess Plastic Surgery!

People frequently ask how much skin can I remove with a tummy tuck? And, basically, the tissue that I can remove from a tummy tuck is between your belly button and the pubic area. So, on this diagram, you can see that the tissue would be removed from here all the way down to here. So, tummy tuck is an interesting surgery in that often times after having babies or massive weight loss, people have their muscles that have stretched underneath. And, in this diagram, you can see that the muscles are separated here. So, during the tummy tuck, the initial incision is underneath here.

You make another incision around the belly button. And, then, you lift up the tissue, kind of like lifting up an apron. And, then, underneath is what you see here with the muscles. Then, I do stitches to pull the muscles together. And, you can see how it really pulls in and defines the waist better, and it also flattens the tummy as well. So, after the muscles are fixed, then basically we pull down the tissue and we trim off the excess. So, all this tissue is removed and the belly button is actually poked out through a new skin opening.

So, the belly button's on a stalk. It actually doesn't move. But, we pull the tissue over the top and then poke it out through a new skin opening. So, your final incisions are basically in the lower part of the abdomen or the pubic portion of the abdomen, and then around the belly button as well.

So, there's a lot of tissue that is removed at the time of surgery, and each patient varies. Sometimes if it's a massive weight loss patient, it could be several pounds of surgery. But, for a smaller, thinner girl that just has lots of stretch marks after having a baby, it's actually probably less.

Sometimes we do procedures for people called a mommy makeover. So, a mommy makeover would actually be for somebody that would consider breast augmentation, or a breast lift, or sometimes both of those, and they might actually combine it with a tummy tuck as well.