When Will This Necrosis After Tummy Tuck Heal?

An area of marginal necrosis in the middle is not uncommon. This is the area that is the furthest away from the blood supply and under the most tension. These areas generally take about 4 - 6 weeks to fully heal. Many times the scar will look just fine and other times you may require a relatively simple scar revision. If it is a large area such as yours a revision may be more complicated.  Treatment with antibiotics is only needed if you show signs of an invasive infection.  Simple wound care is all that is required at this time.

The time to heal varies slightly between patients and depends on infection, size of the wound, depth of necrosis, and removal of the dead tissue. Debridement of the tissue is standard wound care and has many positive effects. By removing the dead tissue, your surgeon decreases the infection rate and hastens the healing process. This necrosis occurs due to a lack of blood supply. This can be from too much tension on the closure, an underlying blood collection, previous surgical scars, or exogenous factors such as smoking. Although it can be very distressing, it usually heals in a very predictable fashion. Once clean, the wound will have a beefy red appearance and the area will contract in. Once the red tissue is up to the level of the skin, the skin will regrow and close the wound. The final scar is usually much smaller than the original area of necrosis.