Thank you for the question. Generally speaking, the “ideal” patient for tummy tuck surgery is one who has completed pregnancies, is psycho socially/emotionally/financially stable, has an excellent social support system surrounding him/her, is capable of arranging enough recovery time, does not smoke and who has reached a long-term stable weight. Generally speaking, tummy tuck surgery involves removal of “excess” skin and adipose tissue of the lower abdominal wall as well as re-approximation (plication) of the abdominal wall muscles that may have spread with pregnancy and/or weight gain/loss. Liposuctioning may also be utilized during the procedure. Patients often are "adjacent areas" such as flanks, lower back, pubic area… addressed as well. Patients considering the tummy tuck surgery should be aware of its significant recovery, both from the physical and "emotional" standpoints, sometimes underestimated by patients and their plastic surgeons. You should also learn about the potential/complications associated with the procedure. These may include deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, infection, bleeding, and even death. Fortunately, the potential for these types of major complications are very small, assuming careful selection of plastic surgeon, anesthesiologist, and fully accredited surgery facility. Other types of complications that are more likely ( but still much less than 50%) include superficial incision line healing problems ( wound healing problems), seromas, abdominal wall asymmetry, abnormal scarring, unsatisfactory cosmetic result…When it comes to cost of surgery, there may be many “variables” involved. The specific surgeon's credentials/experience level (or lack thereof), the specific geographic area you are looking at, the different operations available, the location of the procedure ( quality of surgery facility), type/quality of anesthesia provider… are some of the potential variables involved.In regards to outcome of the planned procedure, more important than costs of the procedures will be careful selection of your plastic surgeon. ***Make sure that your selected plastic surgeon is a board-certified plastic surgeon who can demonstrate significant experience achieving the types of outcomes you would be pleased with. I would suggest starting with the American Society of Plastic Surgery and/or the Aesthetic Society of Plastic Surgery to obtain a list of well experienced board-certified plastic surgeons.Then, I would suggest you visit a few surgeons whose practices concentrate on aesthetic surgery. Ask to see lots of examples of their work and preferably speak/see patients who have had similar procedures done.Be very careful with your decision-making. You will find, while doing your due diligence, that there are many different “specialties” who will offer their services to you; again, I strongly recommend you concentrate on surgeons certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.***I would also suggest that you do not base your selection of plastic surgeon primarily on costs of surgery; keep in mind that revisionary surgery may be more costly in many ways. I hope this, and the attached link/video, helps.Best wishes.
