Can You Do Muscle Repair Without a Tummy Tuck?

Not really. Repairing the muscle is actually the most invasive part of the tummy tuck, the part that really makes people feel it after and restricts movement. So short of exercise there is really no way to surgically repair the muscles without the surgery, even if you did it endoscopically, the repair is the tough part!!!

Yes, you can get endoscopic (not laparoscopic) repair of rectus diastasis without a full tummy tuck. Some skin excision may be required with this to get your skin to lay flat and smooth.

To be sure, see two or more board-certified plastic surgeons in your area for a full and complete evaluation to make sure you are a good candidate and that it is safe for you to have surgery.  I hope this helps.

You can have a muscle repair without undergoing a tummy tuck but it won't be non-invasive.  Any surgical repair requires an invasive or open approach even though it might be done with a small incision or through small endoscopic incisions but it would be incorrect to label this as non-invasive. Complications such as hematomas, infections, and seromas can occur even though the incisions are small.

Robin T.W. Yuan, M.D.

There are minimally invasive procedures described to plicate the rectus muscle, but it is uncertain how much this improves healing in comparison to a standard tummy tuck.   In addition, it is uncertain how the laparoscopic repair stands up longterm compared to a traditional tummy tuck.

 

I recommend that my patients undergo a traditional tummy tuck procedure, as this has been time tested and shown to provide a durable long lasting result.   I caution my patients against a procedure that might offer minimal recovery with minimal result.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Dr. Gill

Some surgeons (and they are usually general surgeons) are experienced at laparoscopic hernia repair and can do a diastasis repair using the same instrumentation.

The problem can be that if the area between the muscles is wide enough, tacking the edges together can cause buckling of the skin along the vertical midline, because the skin is dragged along with the muscle. This problem is easily addressed with tummy tuck and most diastasis repairs are done that way.

Thanks for the question, best wishes.