Is there any way to avoid blood clots after a Tummy tuck and Lipo?

The great fear plastic surgeons have about tummy tucks are the potential clots in the leg veins which could then travel to the lungs.  To minimize this risk I recommend that patients, 1) Ambulate - I ask my patients to get up and take a short walk every 1-2 hours starting as soon as they get home the day of surgery.  Of course they need someone there with them to help.2) SCD's - We send all of our tummy tuck patients home with sequential compression devices.  These are the things that squeeze your legs during surgery and we ask them to wear them for the first 3-4 days at home.Some surgeons also give blood thinners at the time of surgery for high risk patients.

Great question and this is something that every patient should be aware of. There is no way to 100% avoid developing clots during these procedures but there are plenty of things that can be done to minimize these risks and make sure you are safe. First all of our patients are scored on a Cabrini scale which stratifies you risk of developing a clot based on a number of different conditions. For a tummy tuck we typically give our patients a blood thinner shot (lovenox) preop and they have compression stockings as well as serial compression pumps before the induction of general anesthesia. Post op our patients are sent home with the pumps for the first 5 days to keep on while not ambulating. We encourage patients to walk the evening of surgery and we see all of our patients the next day in the office to force them to ambulate. Every surgeon is different but they should be able to tell you your risk and have a very well thought out plan to arrests those risks.