How is the pain of a tummy tuck with muscle repair compared to a c-section and a full hysterectomy? Are they similar?

Excellent question! The easy answer: tummy tucks are performed as an outpatient surgery and c-sections, hysterectomy are inpatient procedures.  Today's tummy tucks are done with a new added anesthesia: a "TAP" block. Similar to how a dentist can numb your tooth; now we can numb your abdomen for up to three days postoperative. This will make your recovery very comfortable.

Dear Patient:  I have many patients ask me the same question.  According to them, after they have the TT with muscle repair, they tell me that the C section discomfort in a range from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest level of pain, if the rate the Hysterectomy or C Section at a 10, the TT will be a 7 or 8.  The reason for this result is that when a C Section or Open Hysterectomy is performed, the gynecologist has to cut the rectus muscle.  When a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon performs it, skin is excised and we tighten the muscle but we don't cut it.  Patients tell me that the pain for Hysterectomy is deeper compared to a more superficial burning of the TT discomfort.  You can always consider a pain pump that we can place during the procedure to minimize your post op discomfort. Hope this helps:)

A C-section or TAH is a good frame of reference surgically for a TT in terms of pain although many of my patients say they had less pain.  Muscle repair dictates much of the post-operative discomfort.  

Thank you for your question.  I get this question all the time.  I've learned not to compare a tummy tuck to the surgeries you mention because women routinely describe a c-section or hysterectomy as either incredibly easy to recover from or incredibly difficult.  Nearly all of my tummy tuck patients describe the pain as not being nearly as bad as they thought, so I would have the expectation of soreness for sure but excruciating pain is not the norm.  Hope this helps.

Thank you for the question. As you can imagine, every patient will have a different experience when it comes to discomfort (and overall healing process) after tummy tuck surgery. Generally, most patients will report that the recovery process is similar to recovering after C-section. Anecdotally, when I have asked patients to compare, all have reported that the tummy tuck recovery is less painful than C-section recovery. I hope this, and the attached link/video, helps.