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

Thank you for your excellent question.  Walking after surgery to keep your blood pumping is the best prevention of blood clots, and it is recommended that you walk several times daily. I would also recommend staying well-hydrated, drinking sufficient water during the day to maintain your urine a pale yellow color. Hope this helps.

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. 

Yes, it is very important that you walk three times a day and stay active, very important that your doctor use all available methods to stop their formation while under anesthesia and I place all my pt s on aspirin post op, good luck!

I think the single most important thing to do post op is wear compression socks and avoid prolonged sitting.Either walk or lay down with your feet elevated and exercise your calf muscles but avoid prolonged sitting.