42, 5’1, 116lbs, can my muscles be repaired with a mini or smaller incision? (Photos)

Your concern should not be about the length of your incision, but instead the position on your body. There will be a tendency for surgeons to give you one that will be too high on your abdomen and difficult to cover in a bikini. Why? Because most surgeons want to 'get the hole out', the skin defect where it was once attached to your belly button. There is a persistent and erroneous belief that the hole has to come out with the excess skin, leading to millions of women with an unnecessarily high transverse incisions, instead of a very inconspicuous, short, midline incision and a very low long incision. Why are you at risk? Because although you have muscle and skin laxity, you have little skin excess, especially above your belly button, and that lack of excess skin will mean that the hole won't travel far once the skin has been transposed downward.

Thanks for your question and the photos you provided. You are a perfect full tummy tuck candidate to remove the greatest amount of stretch marks in your lower abdomen, address your severe muscle separation. Make sure you consult with a board certified plastic surgeon

Thank you for your question and pictures! For muscle repair, you would ned to have a full abdominoplasty. This consists of having a scar that goes hip to hip. This is necessary to fully repair your diastasis recti. I recommend that you meet with a board certified plastic surgeon in order to have an in person exam. Best of luck!

A full muscle repair can be done with a mini tummy tuck using umbilical float, but your photos show too much loose skin to get away with a mini. With a wide diastasis and weakened abdominal wall like I see in your photos, I would also consider using Galaflex or Durasorb mesh for reinforcement.

Dear Friendlygirl2022,
based on your photos, you look like a good candidate for a TT. Full tummy tuck should tighten your abdominal muscles and remove the excess skin. Flanks liposuction would give you a better shape. I would suggest you to consult a board-certified plastic surgeon because only after a thorough examination you will get more information and recommendations.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Based on your photos you are not a candidate for a mini tummy tuck. However, you appear to be a great candidate for a full tummy tuck and should see significant improvement of your abdominal contours. The procedure would remove excess skin and fat and restore your abdominal wall contours. I encourage you to visit my website and look through before/after photos to see the changes my patients have had after this procedure.

You will need the regular incision to tighten the muscles and then remove the excess skin. You will have left over skin once the muscles are tight.

After reading your story and looking at your pictures I think you need a tummy tuck. In doing so you would be able to address all your areas of concern. I would be hesitant to do just a muscle repair or a mini tummy tuck in your case because I think you will be left with excess, lose abdominal skin. A full tummy tuck on the other hand will fix your diastasis, address your belly button and get rid of all the excess, lose skin.

And mini tummy tuck is not appropriate in your case.
Most plastic surgeons will not do muscle tightening of the lower abdomen only because it’ll make the upper abdomen bulge even worse.
In your situation you clearly need a full tummy tuck. There is no alternative. A short scar leads to less skin tightening so discard length is something you can discuss with your surgeon. What’s more important than the length of the scar is the design and how the scar is set. If the incision is Designed correctly then length is not all that important because it’s simply blends into your normal natural anatomy and fades over time.
I often tell people who complain about not wanting a tummy tuck that nobody has to have one but in your case I think you actually need a tummy tuck.
To do the process correctly with a good overall experience patients need to be physically, emotionally and socially well prepared.
The importance of choosing the right surgeon cannot be over emphasized.
To find the right provider I suggest patients have multiple in person consultations staying locally whenever possible.
During each consultation ask each provider to open up their entire portfolio before and after pictures and look for as many pictures as possible of patients who have similar body characteristics to your own.
In your case it may be challenging to find patience with that degree of muscle separation but overall thin lobby in my patience with moderate skin laxity and significant muscle separation is what you’re looking for.
Look critically at the results looking specifically for what surgeon gets the most natural looking belly buttons on a consistent basis.
Look specifically at the design of the scar and if it’s set very low and follows an atomic contours naturally and it’s even on both sides.The scar itself is simply related to how each individual person heals and how many months after surgery the picture was taken. Discard itself is not a representation of quality work but the design or where the incision is made is.
The torso should look balanced attractive inappropriate from all angles including from behind.
An experienced plastic surgeon should have no difficulty showing you at least 50 sets Of before and after pictures and highly experienced surgeons will have hundreds or possibly even thousands.
Of before and after pictures and highly experienced surgeons will have hundreds or possibly even thousands. ask the surgeon to show you examples of excellent outcomes, average outcomes and I will come so didn’t turn out as well as they had hoped for. Discuss revision policy and ask the surgeon what his or her revision rates are. I asked to see examples of patients who had revisions and what they look like before and after.
All plastic surgeons should have a certain revision rate.
Exceptionally lower revision rates means that plastic surgeons are not willing to go the extra mile to get the best possible results for their patients and then excessively high revision rate may indicate someone has mastered a procedure yet.
5% is probably a very healthy revision rate for a overall typical plastic surgeon.
Those who claim to never do revisions or revisions being exceedingly rare or either not telling you the truth or are not offering patience the best possible outcomes.
We all have a variety of outcomes. It’s fair for patients to ask to see different outcomes to get a clear understanding of what average results look like in the hands of each provider.
Most plastic surgeons will tell you it takes about two full weeks of recovery time to be back on your feet doing daily low impact activities.
People perceive their recovery differently and some patients are back on their feet a little sooner.
The first three days are definitely challenging and most patients need to take narcotic pain medication around the clock during this time. On the third day things turn around and get better and each day from then on will get easier day by day.
Most plastic surgeons will use drains and drains become highly annoying for patients starting about a week after surgery.
Drains may stay in between 5 to 15 days.
All of this will be explained during consultations. Some plastic surgeons do the procedure without drains. There are advantages and disadvantages of every alternative.
Continue having consultations until you feel like you’re found the right plastic surgeon for your needs.
Good luck,
Mats Hagstrom MD