Umbilicoplasty for Removing Excess Skin Above Belly Button?

Your best option is what is known as a "reverse abdominoplasty". Your picture and your surgical history makes you a "text-book" case for a reverse abdominoplasty. You can mimic the outcome of such a procedure my placing your hands on your upper abdomen under your rib cage and gently lift up. Notice how youthful your belly button appears with this maneuver. The same thing happens in a reverse abdominoplasty. The incision is placed within the inframammary folds (the crease under each breast where the lower breast meets the chest wall). If skin elevation required to produce a youthful appearance to the belly button is not too excessive, most times the scar(s) can be kept within the breast inframammary folds. Rule of thumb in plastic surgery regarding the length of a scar is that the linear length of a scar will be 3-4 times the width of the defect being closed. So if 2" of elevation is needed to produce a youthful appearance to the belly button, then a scar length of 6-8" is required to close the wound. Depending on the size, width of your breasts, these scars may be well hidden. If the width of the wound closure required to elevate the abdominal skin is exceeds the base width of your breasts, then you will have to accept either compromise in the final appearance of the belly button or accept a scar which runs low between the bottoms of your breast. You probably will be in the first category, but without a hands on examination as to how much elevation of upper abdominal skin you will require to remove the excess belly button skin, it is impossible to say. I have always performed ultrasonic assisted liposuction of the upper abdomen with reverse abdominoplasty which not only promotes upper abdominal skin retraction/tightening, but once the upper abdomen skin is elevated into its new position, liposuction of the intervening abdominal area promotes better skin adherence. This helps maintain the abdominal skin in its new position long term.Aggressive defatting of the area between the breasts during liposuction can help the surgeon modify their wound closure a bit to keep the scar length within the confines of the inframammary folds. This has been the case in my experience. Hope this helps and best wishes.

Dear Annie2009,
it is hard to tell for sure without an examination. If you are considering a surgery, I would suggest you to consult a board-certified plastic surgeon. Only after a thorough examination you will get more information and recommendations.

Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Thank you for your question and for providing a picture. I am sorry you haven't achieved the result that you desire. I would agree with your plastic surgeom that a full tummy tuck would have been the procedure of choice here. With the mini you say you have achieved the flatter tummy but there is the redundent skin above the belly button. Unfortunately, I would not consider a umbilicoplasty here. Although you could remove some skin and pull  the skin in soewhat, you will still be left with too much skin excess and so will still not achieve the result you desire. There is the possibility of the reverse tummy tuck to address the upper abdomen, but you are placing another scar in the upper portion of the abdomen. In my mind it would be better to consider going for the full tummy tuck possibly. The scar will be the same and it will address the issue that you have.I hope this i sof some helpBest wishes 

Thank you for your question and sharing your photo.  You can choose to remove a small amount of skin from above the belly button and allow this to heal.  I would then recommend that you consider a device that builds collagen and elastin above the belly button.  This should allow for some additional tightening to occur.  You may continue to have some laxity, but you will see an improvement.

Belly Button surgery also called an umbilicoplasty, by itself only takes care of stretch marks and loose skin in the immediate area (few inches) of the belly button. It might be a good procedure for you but an exam would be required to confirm this impression. Choose the best plastic surgeon with the most experience (see below link).

The abdomen will often have significant changes following pregnancy. These include saggy, redundant skin, weakened muscles, and stretch marks. Treatment varies and needs to be individualized based on the deformity encountered. Careful analysis of the anatomic deformity is essential to obtaining an aesthetically attractive result.
In the absence of a thorough physical examination, your picture and comments suggest that you have a residual deformity, which primarily involves the area above the belly button.
Conversion of your mini abdominoplasty to a full abdominoplasty may be necessary to correct your problem. A small, vertical incision may be necessary if there is insufficient laxity of the upper abdominal skin to allow transverse closure of the wound. Utilizing this approach, it’s possible to correct these types of problems with secondary abdominoplasty.

Your mini tummy tuck was what you wanted, but not what you needed. Now you know this, and have to pay more for the operation you should have had (and a second time off work for recovery). You now recognize this, so I'm not chastising you, just (probably futilely) trying to educate others like you who expect more than this surgery can deliver.

Umbilicoplasty only further complicates the problem, as this will add either small, inadequate scars to correct the probelm, or large, unsightly scars that still inadequately address this concern. Two incorrect surgeries do not equal a "right." And of course, choosing to have a less-costly option (against proper advice) will now actually cost you much more, not only in $$ but in additional time off.

I'm really sorry to tell you this, but you need to have the operation your plastic surgeon (and one other) originally recommended, because this is what was originally necessary, and still is. Save up and do the right thing, but don't worsen your problem with another "wrong" operation. I'm also sorry to sound so harsh, but some people just don't listen, and then complain about "bad plastic surgery" when they convince someone with less experience or less willingness to "lose the case" to proceed anyway. I am genuinely sorry for your predicament!

The gold standard for surgical repair is an abdominoplasty.  Lesser treatments will only provide less than satisfactory results.Our office specializes in belly button revision. One option is a concentric umbilicoplasty to repair the excess skin only.  

The ideal candidate for a Mini Tummy Tuck is an individual who has:

1.  Good skin elasticity with minimal looseness

2. No or minimal stretch marks

3. A belly button high above the bikini line

4. Thin with a long waist

I have had good results with Mini Tummy Tucks, but I see very few women in my practice who are good candidates for this procedure. At issue is the fact that Mini Tummy Tucks do not tighten the skin very much. The flattening of the abdomen with a Mini Tummy Tuck results from liposuction and tightening the muscles. The scar is shorter because less skin is removed during a Mini Tummy Tuck than during a Tull Tummy Tuck.

Based on the photo you have submitted, I think that you would have a very nice result with a Full Tummy Tuck. An Umbilicoplasty will not provide you with the improvement you are looking for.

I would recommend discussing your concerns with your Plastic Surgeon.

Best regards,

Andrew Lyos, MD, FACS

It is imperative that the surgeon chooses an appropriate procedure for each individual patient based on that patient's anatomy.  There are many surgical approaches to a tummy tuck, not just mini and full.  In my practice there is a subset of patients in whom I perform a procedure with a mini Tummy tuck type of an incision, but with more advanced deep work, which includes moving  umbilicus lower, thus not leaving an umbilical hood like you appear to have.  Of course at this point I can cat tell if you would have been an appropriate candidate for this procedure.

Your abnormality can be corrected at least somewhat.  It is still possible to move your umbilicus lower, so called umbilical float procedure.  In addition to that you might need some type of skin tightening above the belly button such as Thermage or lower mini-liposuction.  In my opinion, any type of limited skin incision above the belly button would not leave you with a better aesthetic outcome, as the resultant scar rarely looks acceptable and typically makes the umbilicus look abnormal