2 years post C-section - Scar revision or mini tummy tuck? Any other non surgical surgical options? (Photos)

Question

2 years post c section. Scar has healed really well seemingly. Can barely see it and moves easily. There's a very small amount of excess skin above the scar. It doesn't crease at the scar, it ends about about 1cm above the scar. It's reduced greatly over the last 2 years, but it still can show through clothing sometimes. What are my options? It seems really minor so I'm wondering if there might be non surgical options or a scar revision to flatten it out

Leila Kasrai, MD, FRCSC · Answer

The excess skin above the scar may be best resolved with a mini tummy tuck. Scar revision would not remove this skin.

Mats Hagstrom, MD (license on probation) · Answer

A mini tummy tuck is going to be the correct procedure to address the concerns you described.
A mini tummy tuck will not address skin laxity of the upper abdomen and will not address muscle separation, causing slight abdominal bulging.
All women develop muscle separation after pregnancy Some much more than others.
Muscle separation causes the abdominal wall to bulge when the muscles are not contracted.
It doesn’t look like you have any significant degree of skin laxity of the upper abdomen, and muscle separation is slight at best.
There are a number of variations of a mini tummy talk.
One is the extent of the procedure, including if the skin and fat layer should be separated from the muscle up to the belly button, a.k.a. undermined.
 In your case it’s probably not necessary to undermine and this saves you needing to use a drain after the procedure.
Simply cutting out some of the ex skin and sewing the skin it just together with absorbable sutures is going to do the job for you.
 The car will be probably twice as long as your current scar if not slightly longer.
There’s no point in doing the procedure and not getting the results you want and when we excise skin, the scar ends up being longer than people think in order to not compromise the contour which is what you’re trying to improve after all.
 The scar of a mini tummy tuck is almost as long as a full tummy tuck, though in your case, it doesn’t need to be quite that long.
Different surgeons are obviously going to take a different approach.
One of the big variables is the design of the scar itself.
The position of the scar in relationship to your groin increases versus being on your lower abdomen is also a decision. The surgeon will make.
I personally design the scar to follow the contour of the pubic area then placed a scar in the groin increase as low as possible.
Your best option is to have multiple in person consultations with plastic surgeons in your community and see what they have to say.
I highly recommend you get a quality set of abdominal pictures of yourself taking the same way plastic surgeons take before and after pictures.
Please bring pictures of yourself to the consultation to use as reference.
Whenever reviewing before, and after pictures, you should always have pictures of yourself to use as a reference.
 Ask each surgeon to open up their portfolio and show you their entire collection of before, and after pictures of previous patients who had the same body characteristic as your own.
Please bring pictures to use as a reference to make sure they’re not showing you pictures of patients who’s candidacy for the procedure was different than your own.
An experience surgeon should have no difficulty showing you lots of examples of patients who had the same degree of skin laxity and had more or less the same procedure.
The more experienced and organized the surgeon is the more readily they’ll be able to show you examples of patients who look just like you.
A lack of quality before and after pictures should be an immediate red flag, even for a fairly straightforward simple procedure.
You definitely wanna ask if they’re going to undermine and or if they’re going to be placing a drain because this has a big impact on the first week or two after the procedure.
Sometimes undermining is appropriate and sometimes it’s not needed.
Surgeons may also recommend adding liposuction to the procedure to compensate for some of the slight abdominal bulging from muscle separation.
This may or may not be a good idea, depending on their Liposuction skills.
Doing Liposuction well is much more difficult than most people realize and the number of plastic surgeons who can deliver flawless liposuction results is far smaller than most people realize as well.
Absolutely do not have liposuction until you see clear proof with lots and lots and lots and lots of before and after pictures with flawless outcomes.
One or two examples is absolutely insufficient to confirm someone has mastery of Liposuction.
Simply removing fat with a cannula requires virtually no skill at all, but to do it with results that show no evidence of having had a surgical procedure is a whole Nother ball game.
Doing Liposuction well is difficult.
You may not want or need Liposuction? I only bring this up because surgeons are known to try to upsell or want to get the best results.
 Adding Liposuction isn’t really going to make your recovery any longer so it may be a reasonable option but only if the surgeon is good at it and it’s something that you desire.
By the way, if you add Liposuction to the abdomen, then you may as well do the waist and the love handles and the back, etc. etc. so maybe just don’t even think about adding Liposuction at all since your concern is only the skin. 
I must be rambling.
I do think it’s a good idea to have in person consultations and I really think it’s a good idea to meet with at least a couple of plastic surgeons before selecting a provider for any permanent irreversible procedure.
It may seem easy and straightforward, but the design of the incision and where it’s placed in the end makes a big difference and however it’s done is what you’re going to live with for the rest of your life.
This is not like buying clothing.
You can’t ship it back if it doesn’t fit.
Please take the time to have proper consultations and to properly vet plastic surgeons.
Good luck to you,
Mats Hagstrom MD

2 years post C-section - Scar revision or mini tummy tuck? Any other non surgical surgical options? (Photos)

Answers (2)

More Mini Tummy Tuck Questions

Loose skin after loosing pregnancy weight - Mini tummy tuck or Umbilicoplasty? (Photo)

Upper abdomen bulge 1 year post mini tuck - can this be revised? (Photos)

I am 5’8, 158lbs - no muscle seperation. Am I a mini tummy tuck candidate? (Photos)

Would it be possible to remove the loose skin with just a mini tummy tuck? (Photos)

Mini Tummy Tuck - can I remove a small amount of skin? (Photos)

This lower belly bulge seems impossible to remove. Am I a candidate for a mini tummy tuck? (Photos)

WE SEND PRETTY
EMAILS