Tummy Tuck Downtime - Why Was So Much Time Needed?

I Had a Friend Who Had a Tummy Tuck - They Told Her 2 Weeks , She Was off 1 Month WHY?

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13 Doctor Answers | Asked by Woodbridge572

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Tummy tuck downtime

It depends on exactly what kind of "tummy tuck" the person is having, and what kind of work they do. For a patient having a full abdominoplasty with tightening of the fascia (muscle layer) and who does anything physical at work, it is unreasonable to expect to be back in two weeks. Every patient is different, though. The main thing is that if overly physical activity or lifting is done too soon it can cause disruption of the muscle repair.

Tummy Tuck or Abdominoplasty Downtime

The amount of time it takes to recover from an abdominoplasty is highly variable and depends upon the individual and the amount of muscle tightening that is down during the surgery. While four weeks to recover and get back to work after an abdominoplasty is certainly longer than most it is not unreasonable. The most important factor in recovering from a tummy tuck is not to do any heavy lifting or core work for 6 weeks in order to give the muscle repair time to fully heal. more

Tummy Tuck Downtime?

Thank you for the question. The tummy tuck operation is a major operation that significantly changes the patient's anatomy and involves significant dissection and wound healing postoperatively. The amount of post operative (physical and emotional) recovery should not be underestimated by surgeons or patients. I tell all patients undergoing tummy tuck surgery to expect at least 4 to 6 weeks of relative “downtime”. Some patients are pleasantly... more

Tummy tuck

Everyone will heal at different rates and have different levels of pain tolerance. Most patients can return to work after a week if they have a desk type of job but they will still be a little sore. If you have a more active job with lifting you may need several more weeks to heal.

Downtime is not a bad thing

Every surgery aims to correct or improve certain things. When surgery involves cutting and sewing of active muscles, the muscles need more time to heal than skin and fat. Think of the professional ball player that undergoes surgery on their knee. Healing time for the surgery is at least 3-5 weeks. Tummy tuck surgery involves cutting fat, skin and sewing muscle. The skin is stretched and secured with sutures. These sutures have good strength but the... more

Jonathan Berman, MD

Palm Beach Plastic Surgeon

www.drberman.com

Recovery from an Abdominoplasty

TTs come in all sizes and shapes as do patients and their circumstances. There seems to be a wide range of recovery time with this procedure. In part it depends on whether the muscle is tightened and how much. The length of the incision seems to matter less as it is the muscle that hurts the most. The biggest variation seems to be in patient tolerance. Some of us have better pain thresholds than others. Two to four to even six weeks is about normal, but I... more

Recovery from surgery

Every patient is different in terms of recovery required. Just as patients come in every shape and size, the surgery performed has to be customized for each patient. A larger patient most likely will require a longer recovery than a small patient since the procedure will be different in the smaller patients. Additionally, regardless of what procedure was performed, patients react differently to the stress of surgery. Finally, rarely there are issues after surgery... more

Downtime with Tummy Tuck

The time off work following a tummy tuck varies a good deal. Motivated patients who work at desk jobs may be able to return to work after 10-14 days. Others whose occupations involve lifting or straining may need 4-6 weeks off work. Delayed wound healing or other problems may prolong these times.

The wide range of downtime after tummy tuck

We often recommend two weeks after tummy tuck, and this is about right for most. We also have some be out and about after one week, and a few who may require three to four weeks. Like most things, recovery will follow a bell curve, most in the middle, some at either end. Your friend is not wrong or especially slow if she needed the four weeks to get back to things, she is just at the further end of the curve. Best of luck, peterejohnsonmd

Tummy Tuck Downtime - Why Was So Much Time Needed?

We give a range in "downtime" following a TT. It is based upon many factors, like age, weight, muscle repair, lipo, etc. So the range is 2 weeks to 6 weeks. Average time is 3 to 4 weeks. This allows full healing of the lifted tissues.

Recovery time for tummy tuck depends on several individual factors

A tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) addresses several issues, including excess skin, localized fat, and muscle separation (diastasis) following pregnancy. None of these factors is correctable with exercise and diet, and each person's situation is different. The most siginificant of these is the muscle repair, which is a lot like a hernia repair so the recovery will depend on how widely separated the muscles were; the wider the separation, the tighter the repair.

Tummy tuck downtime

We tell our tummy tuck patients to expect 2 to 4 weeks of downtime, that it can be longer in some. Muscle plication can be quite uncomfortable and some people do better than others..

Downtime from surgery

There can be many factors that afftect downtime from surgery. It can be the type of surgery, the amount of work which can be different from one patient to the other, also if there are combinations of procedures done at the same time, the patients' tolerance for pain, the type of work they have to go back to. Sometimes unforeseen complications can also increase the downtime. All of these things have to be taken into consideration and the surgeon usually discusses that in advance... more