Pleats in Abdomen After Tummy Tuck with Lipo

Hi there-

Pleating of the incision is very common and in most cases settles over time...

It is way too early in the healing process for you to be scrutinizing the details of your outcome and allowing yourself to stress about tiny imperfections and whether or not you need a revision!

Please stay calm, and realize that your outcome is going to improve and evolve over the next few weeks- only after an appropriate healing period would it be okay to carefully consider the outcome and whether or not imperfections need be addressed.

Try not to judge to critically the result yet.  As swelling resolves and the tissue settles these issues may very well become non-issues.  Now is NOT the time for any "revision" surgery!

Dr. ES

Most likely swelling if only 2 weeks out from surgery. Thanks for the photo! It helps answer. I would wait 3 more weeks before becoming concerned. Discuss with your surgeon.

From MIAMI DR. B

As regards your worry about "big pleats fon the scar running to the hip. My left side has big pleats from the scar to the hip" - in the vast majority of cases these always flatten out. The reason for the pleats is the way the Plastic surgeon is forced to take the excess skin.

The maximum point of tummy distension and excess skin are always in the MID belly. The lower tummy where we truly and hide the scar was NOT stretched as much because the pelvic bones underneath do not allow the uterus or obesity to move them. Without outward stretching (due to the stiff protection of the underlying bones, the lower tummy has less skin than the tummy several inches above it. So, as the excess skin is trimmed, we always end up with more skin on the top than on the bottom. To smooth the excess, we can either greatly lengthen the bottom incision sideways (ending up with longer scar) OR gather the upper wound inwards resulting in TEMPORARY folds which always go away. If you do not like the way things look at 6-8 months, your surgeon can lengthen the scar and smooth it out. This is rarely necessary.

As to : "my upper abdomen bulges out when I’m sitting " it is hard to answer you. It may be that you had significant upper tummy fat which could not have been safely suctioned at this time or that your muscles were not brought together very tightly. Discuss this with your surgeon. I'm sure he would be only too glad to answer you.