Is it normal for my stomach to be this large 14 weeks post op Tummy Tuck with muscle repair? Please advise... (photo)

Question

Bryson G. Richards, MD · Answer

Thank you for your pictures and question.Congratulations on your tummy tuck! Comparing preop to postop, you have a great result. Your scars appear flat and your belly button looks good. It appears that all of the tissue between your panty line and belly button was removed. A tummy tuck will not be able to address intra-abdominal fat (fat underneath the muscle), nor will it address upper abdominal fat.When you bend over (2nd picture), I don't see a lot of redundant skin.If you were to go and lose weight, you may notice the tummy to decrease in size.

David Stoker, MD · Answer

It appears that you have a nice result from your tummy tuck.  The reason that you still have fullness in your abdomen is that you have internal fat that is not accessible with cosmetic surgery.  Diet and exercise will allow you to have a flatter abdomen and to get the most out of your surgery.  Good luck.

Joseph L. Grzeskiewicz, MD, FACS · Answer

What I will say may not be what you want to hear, but it's my honest opinion of what is going on, and I think it's really what you should hear.  In looking at your preoperative images, a few things are seen.  First, you had a significant amount of loose and redundant skin and fat that hangs over your belly button and your bikini line.  That is now gone, and it is one of the things that a tummy tuck accomplishes.  Second, you had, and I think still have, a significant amount of intra-abdominal volume, or fullness, and this is caused by the fat that is around your organs called your visceral fat.  The important thing to note here about that fat is that it can only be reduced by diet, exercise, and other weight loss strategies.  It is not amenable to surgery like tummy tuck or liposuction.  Very frequently I will recommend that patients with significant volumes of intra-abdominal fat wait for surgery until they have lost weight, and thus reduced the volume in their visceral fat, because if you do a tummy tuck on someone with large intra-abdominal fat volume, all you are really doing is pulling the muscle tighter over an already too full abdominal cavity, and you will either make things look tight and round, or you will eventually get weakening of the muscle repair under the stress; either way you will have a round appearing abdomen in the end instead of a flat tummy and narrow waistline.  Third, you have a wide costal margin, or bottom of the rib cage, and this results from a variety of things ranging from simple genetics and familial traits, to chronic weight gain and obesity, to pregnancy, all of which can mold or "stretch" the cartilage and the bottom ribs of the rib cage and create a full, almost "barrel chest" appearance to the bottom of the ribs.  The significance of this is that the skeletal structure of the torso, namely the ribs and pelvis, won't change with tummy tuck, and if you have a wide, full frame at the time of a tummy tuck, even if you try to tighten the soft tissues over that frame, you will still be draping them over a wide frame, and the overall dimensions of the torso will stay the same.  Those are the main things that jump out at me in your case, and they are the reasons why I think that your appearance right now as shown in your images is in fact "normal."  It is a normal result for the operation that was performed under the circumstances it was performed under.  Thus, it does not appear that there is anything "wrong" per se.  You might not have achieved the result that you were expecting, but given the preoperative appearance, it is the result that I would have expected.  The issue here is not one of medical complications, in that regard you seem to have healed well; rather I think it is the very important issue of expectations and how those are set and managed preoperatively.  If you are able to use your recent surgery as a "motivational springboard" and from here adopt an effective dietary and exercise regimen that can help you lose some of your intra-abdominal fat, I think you would look much better and be happier with your result.  Good luck.

Is it normal for my stomach to be this large 14 weeks post op Tummy Tuck with muscle repair? Please advise... (photo)

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Is it normal for my stomach to be this large 14 weeks post op Tummy Tuck with muscle repair? Please advise... (photo)

Answers (3)

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Everything you need to know about Tummy Tuck

Our mission is to create a world where every investment in modern beauty is Worth It.