Swelling and fullness 11 months after tummy tuck - Do I need liposuction or something else? (photo)

Your one photo is very limited and does not really show much of your abdomen. Excess fat can be treated with liposuction. Please discuss your concerns with your surgeon.

At eleven months post op you are looking at your final results. Your abdominal contour could be from a few things. One is subcutaneous fat. If that is the cause then liposuction of the area will help. Second is that the abdominal wall was either not repaired or that the repair has failed. Third is visceral fat. This is the internal fat around your organs behind your muscle wall. This is not treatable with a tummy tuck nor liposuction. Weight loss will improve the contour if this is the cause. An in person evaluation is needed to determine the underlying cause.

Based on your one posted in clothing photo, I recommend an MRI or ultrasound of the upper abdomen to see if the muscle repair failed, or residual, fat, or both. After the results of those test, then a decision can be made whether to try liposuction with J plasma, or a complete revision of the tummy tuck with aggressive repair of upper abdomen, split muscles Expect to be from $10,000. Best of virtual consult with

To make an assessment regarding the outcome of a plastic surgery procedure with generally always need to see a complete set of proper before and after pictures.
If you don’t have proper before, and after pictures, then ask your surgeon to forward the pictures they took.
The most common reason patients bulge after a tummy tuck is due to excess visceral or intra-abdominal fat.
Disc often be seen on preoperative pictures and should be assessed during an in person consultation.
There are four tissue variables that determine what someone’s abdomen looks like.
In other words, if somebody doesn’t like the way, their belly looks it is always because of one or more of four different tissue layers.
These are.
1) abdominal skin laxity due to previous weight loss or previous pregnancy.
2) excess subcutaneous fat.
3) muscle separation from previous pregnancy.
4 excess visceral or in abdominal fat.
No longer have excess abdominal skin because that was removed during the procedure.
Likewise, it doesn’t appear that you have thick layers of subcutaneous fat. Muscle separation is usually very consistent and rarely fails after this operation.
This leaves only one variable which is excess visceral fat.
visual fat can only be reduced with weight loss.In a perfect world individuals who have excess visceral fat, should be told of this during a consultation, so that they understand the limitations of the procedure without successful weight loss.
In your case, I’m fairly certain visceral fat is the culprit, and the only way to get a flat abdomen is to lose weight.
I suggest trying to lose at least 5 to 10 pounds.
Take some pictures from a consistent distance similar to how plastic surgeons take before and after pictures.
Repeat these pictures if you gain or lose any significant amount of the weight.
By doing this, you will have a clear understanding of the impact that weight gain or weight loss has on the appearance of your abdomen.
If you’re able to successfully lose weight Then you’ll eventually know what weight you need to obtain in order to have the results you want.
At this point the results are completely up to you.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom, MD