Am I a suitable candidate for a tummy tuck/Possibly scar removal?

Hi, thank you for sharing your question. The upper abdominal scar may pose a small risk to the circulation of your abdominal skin, but give that surgery was so many years ago, I would like to say that a tummy tuck would be safe. I would confer with your board certified plastic surgeon and perhaps he/she may want to obtain imaging to confirm. Aside from this issue, you are a great candidate for this surgery. I hope this helps.

Plastic surgeons do not like parallel scars. It creates a watershed zone that puts patients at risk for skin necrosis.

Your previous scar it’s not only in the wrong position but the length of it makes having a full tummy tuck a high risk procedure.

Some surgeons may consider doing the procedure and some may not. some plastic surgeons may do the procedure but be much less aggressive in order to maintain safety. it’s also possible that this could be done as a staged procedure creating some thing called a delay affect. this basically means creating partial parallel scars allowing blood vessels to grow and make up for the lack of an immediate blood supply followed by the definitive procedure at a later date.

The last option is something called the reverse tummy tuck.

I’m not a big fan of that procedure but in your case it may be a better option.

Expect different plastic surgeons to have different opinions and recommendations for this one. i’m looking forward to hearing what others have to say.

Best,

Mats Hagstrom MD