Swollen Love Handles Normal After Tummy Tuck?

It is possible that you have some swelling in your love handles (flanks) after your surgery. However, it looks as if you would benefit form liposuction of those areas. As a standard procedure I liposuction the love handles of all the abdominoplasties that I perform. I feel that it enhances the results and prevents the issue that you are experiencing.

Hi there-

It does look like you may have benefitted from some liposuction... ON the other hand, it may also be that there remains some residual skin excess, or that because the skin that remains is of poor quality (because of your weight gain and loss history), you have this (possibly temporary) problem.

Rather than second guess your surgeon, I would recommend that you visit with them, openly communicate your concerns to them, listen to their thoughts and the plan for improvement, and decide how you would like to proceed. 

I bet your surgeon wants you to be happy and will help you come up with a plan for maximizing your outcome.

What you have are called "dog ears". When an ellipse shape of skin is removed, and the incision closed in a straight line, the two ends of the incision may pooch out as in your photo. This early after surgery, alot of this appearance may be do to swelling in this area. However, if this does not signficantly improve over the next several months, some revision procedure like liposuction may be necessary.