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Can my Abdominoplasty Be Done Primarily Through my Belly Button?

After a twin pregnancy (I stayed in shape and have gotten back my prepreg weight) I have relatively severe diastasis recti and a herniated belly button. Also, the skin surrounding my belly button is distorted and stretched out. I know that the common procedure for repair is an incision from hip to hip. I am not opposed to the scar but would like my excess skin to be removed around my belly button so that the damaged skin is removed and not the good skin between my hip bones. Is this possible?

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14 Doctor Answers | Asked by 5697anon in SF Bay Area, CA

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Tummy tuck through belly button scar

Dear 5697anon: After having experimented with skin removal through a belly button scar on several fit and deserving patients, I can emphatically say, the answer is NO. Judging from your photo, you are in great shape and should have an outstanding result from conventional abdominoplasty. Your umbilical hernia, common in mothers of multiples, will be fixed as part of the tummy tuck procedure. The low abdominal scar will become a non-issue, obscured by your... more

My Abdominoplasty Be Done Primarily Through my Belly Button

Great photo, great question. Easy answer is NO! It would leave a scar around your belly button- not a good idea. Nice try though. Seek in person opinions.

Belly button abdominoplasty not a possibility

Your suggestion is a very good idea but just not possible. A hernia repair can be done through a small umbi scar, and a diastasis repair through a larger one, but trying to remove skin centrally and close it up results in a lot of bunching up. The idea is similar to a Benelli breast lift, which has a larger diamter circle which is a very important difference.

Periumbilical tummy tuck

Hi, No. Stick with the standard, low positioned scar with your tummy tuck and with your body, it should be a knockout. Don't cut corners. You will get a corner cut crappy result. Steven M. Lynch, M.D.

Will A Circumumbilical Skin Resection Give Me A Good Tummy Tuck?

Thank you for this excellent question. Basically, what you are asking is can you imbricate all the loose skin around the belly button on a post pregnancy abdomen to give you an abdominoplasty similar to the curcumareolar breast lift described by Louis Benelli. Unfortunately, the answer is NO. I have seen several patients who had attempted circum umbilical abdominoplasties with unfortunate and very unattractive results.

Can my Abdominoplasty Be Done Primarily Through my Belly Button?

The have a great deal of excess skin. There is no way to adequately redrape and remove this extra skin through an incision in the belly button alone. It is most effectively redraped inferiorly through an incision beneath a bathing suit line (the "hip to hip" you describe, although the actual length depends on how much loose skin you have). the stretched out belly button is made smaller and brought through a new smaller opening as the skin is pulled over the BB, and your... more

Belly Button Abdominoplasty

Abdominoplasty by removing skin from around the belly button has been described. The results don't look good, and the problems from them are hard, if not impossible to fix.

Around the belly button tummy tuck scar.

The excess skin around your belly could be corrected with a scar around your belly button but this would require a vertical scar which would be far more objectionable to a hip to hip scar. As much as it seems possible, it is not likely that you would get a satisfactory result with this limited scar.

Otto Joseph Placik, MD

32 reviews

Chicago Plastic Surgeon

Stick to the traditional abdominoplasty

The simple answer is No. It would look very strange to cut out a ring of skin around your bellybutton and then purse string the skin closed. It sounds like a simple idea, but it would look like a bunched up mess. My advice is to stick with a traditional abdominoplasty to achieve the best results. Good luck.

Belly Button Incision for Tummy Tuck

I looked at your photos and feel you have too much skin for anyhting other than a mini or shorter-scar tummy tuck. This means an incsion in the bikini area. Until we find a way to recondition the skin damaged by aging, stretching, and pregnancy we have to accept an incision to remove it !

You will be disappointed with anything less than an abdominoplasty.

You will be disappointed with anything less than an abdominoplasty. You could just fix the umbilical hernia thru the umbo, but that woulldn't tighten the skin. The scar will be well worththe result. I just published my results with a new kind of tummy tuck which places the scar very, very low. This would be the ideal pattern for you. G. Gregory Gallico, III, MD, FACS Associate Professor, Plastic Surgery Massachusetts General Hospital 170 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA... more

Your concerns can be addressed

I think you would be a candidate for an abdominoplasty and umbilical hernia repair. You may have to accept a small inverted "T" closure. Dr. ES

Tummy Tuck through the belly button

The accepted answer is no. However, with your problem (if I can judge from the picture) may be different. You do not seem to have a lot of supra-umbilical skin laxity, but do have some significant excess below the umbilicus. If this is the case, you could have a mini-abdominoplasty to remove the inferior skin through a short bikini incision and have the hernia and diastasis repaired through the belly button (using endoscopy for the diastasis).

Abdominoplasty through the belly button

There are two main components to a tummy tuck, correction of muscular laxity or diastasis, and correction of skin laxity. It should be possible to correct your umbilical hernia and diastasis through the belly button. The skin laxity however cannot be corrected this way. The tummy tuck will only work be transferring the skin excess down low across the pubis where the scar can be hidden. Best of luck, peterejohnsonmd