POSTED UNDER Tummy Tuck Reviews
Mark Gittos Tummy Tuck Review - Very Disappointing
ORIGINAL POST
Mark Gittos Tummy Tuck Review - Very Disappointing
CandidheartJanuary 22, 2026
Review of Dr Mark Gittos – Plastic Surgeon, Auckland
*This review reflects my personal experience and opinions following surgery*
I underwent a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty), liposuction, and hernia repair with Dr Mark Gittos in Auckland, However, I was disappointed with not only the surgical outcome, but also the general way I was dealt with afterwards by Dr Gittos and his team afterward when I bought this to their attention.
VISUAL RESULTS :
After surgery, I didn't have the big change in my loose skin and pot belly that I expected. Initially, I assumed this might be due to swelling and it would reduce some more over the following weeks to give me a flatter tummy.
However that didn't occur. When I bought it up in a post operative consult , Dr Gittos explained that the roundness was primarily due to visceral fat under and around my organs, and that this could only be addressed through diet and exercise.
But approx five months after surgery, I was pretty surprised to have no reduction in clothing size. ....My physiotherapist could still detect abdominal muscle separation (rectus diastasis)......and my husband confessed he saw little visible difference...... No one else had asked if I had lost weight...... I hadn't thrown out my shape wear......It just didn't seem right to me.
SECOND OPINIONS SOUGHT
I then sought independent assessments from two plastic surgeons.
Surgeon 2# had examined me several months prior to my surgery and had my pre-operative measurements on file so he could do comparisons . He performed a skin-pinch test and found approximately 1 cm reduction in loose skin on my lower abdomen and NO MEASURABLE IMPROVEMENT on my upper abdomen.
Plus he noted a dog-ear at the end of the scar, and bulges in my tummy which indicated I had the abdominal muscle separation from being pregnant - basically a split up the middle between your tummy muscles called " diastasis recti "- something I'd made clear I really wanted rectified as having them stitched up makes a big difference to holding everything in flat. I believed that this would have been fixed as part of my surgery with Dr Gittos - but surgeon2# did say there was a possibility stitches there could have split again after surgery so we couldn't be 100% sure why I still had the bulging.
Surgeon 3# also noted bulging consistent with diastasis recti, dog-ear deformities at the ends of the scar and advised that I contact ACC regarding scar revision.
Both surgeons advised that, in their opinion, a full revision abdominoplasty would be required to achieve the outcome I had originally hoped for.
Surgeon 2# thought that 8 cm more skin would need to be removed. Both also wanted to know if my tummy button had been moved or not - as it would be important to know this from a surgical point of view when doing a revision ( this point becomes important later - and I still do not have the answer to this question) .
As you can imagine, I found this all really difficult to process , given the financial cost, recovery time, and physical impact of the procedure.
I then wrote to Dr Gittos outlining the feedback I had received, my unhappiness with the result - and - requested a meeting to discuss the situation. I also cut and paste some of the feedback from one of the surgeons reports into this email to back up what I had said. I kept it brief and "professional" as possible - even though I was honestly just devastated inside. ( letter one )
RESPONSE TO MY COMPLAINT
I did not get the response I was expecting ( letter 2 ) . ...... Dr Gittos responded that he did not believe there were issues requiring further treatment, and he also did not respond to my request for a meeting He did however ask for the name of the surgeon who I "said" had provided the second opinion , and chided him for not "paying me the professional courtesy and has not written to me on this matter".
This was the beginning of an email exchange that left me feeling even more crushed, and I will add those details in additional posts. I am also scheduled to have a full revision tummy tuck this year - and will post the results of that journey too.
It's taken me a long time to process all of this , and its still pretty hard to dig it all up and I leave this account of my experience . It was a while ago (11/22) but the effects still linger.
*This review reflects my personal experience and opinions following surgery*
I underwent a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty), liposuction, and hernia repair with Dr Mark Gittos in Auckland, However, I was disappointed with not only the surgical outcome, but also the general way I was dealt with afterwards by Dr Gittos and his team afterward when I bought this to their attention.
VISUAL RESULTS :
After surgery, I didn't have the big change in my loose skin and pot belly that I expected. Initially, I assumed this might be due to swelling and it would reduce some more over the following weeks to give me a flatter tummy.
However that didn't occur. When I bought it up in a post operative consult , Dr Gittos explained that the roundness was primarily due to visceral fat under and around my organs, and that this could only be addressed through diet and exercise.
But approx five months after surgery, I was pretty surprised to have no reduction in clothing size. ....My physiotherapist could still detect abdominal muscle separation (rectus diastasis)......and my husband confessed he saw little visible difference...... No one else had asked if I had lost weight...... I hadn't thrown out my shape wear......It just didn't seem right to me.
SECOND OPINIONS SOUGHT
I then sought independent assessments from two plastic surgeons.
Surgeon 2# had examined me several months prior to my surgery and had my pre-operative measurements on file so he could do comparisons . He performed a skin-pinch test and found approximately 1 cm reduction in loose skin on my lower abdomen and NO MEASURABLE IMPROVEMENT on my upper abdomen.
Plus he noted a dog-ear at the end of the scar, and bulges in my tummy which indicated I had the abdominal muscle separation from being pregnant - basically a split up the middle between your tummy muscles called " diastasis recti "- something I'd made clear I really wanted rectified as having them stitched up makes a big difference to holding everything in flat. I believed that this would have been fixed as part of my surgery with Dr Gittos - but surgeon2# did say there was a possibility stitches there could have split again after surgery so we couldn't be 100% sure why I still had the bulging.
Surgeon 3# also noted bulging consistent with diastasis recti, dog-ear deformities at the ends of the scar and advised that I contact ACC regarding scar revision.
Both surgeons advised that, in their opinion, a full revision abdominoplasty would be required to achieve the outcome I had originally hoped for.
Surgeon 2# thought that 8 cm more skin would need to be removed. Both also wanted to know if my tummy button had been moved or not - as it would be important to know this from a surgical point of view when doing a revision ( this point becomes important later - and I still do not have the answer to this question) .
As you can imagine, I found this all really difficult to process , given the financial cost, recovery time, and physical impact of the procedure.
I then wrote to Dr Gittos outlining the feedback I had received, my unhappiness with the result - and - requested a meeting to discuss the situation. I also cut and paste some of the feedback from one of the surgeons reports into this email to back up what I had said. I kept it brief and "professional" as possible - even though I was honestly just devastated inside. ( letter one )
RESPONSE TO MY COMPLAINT
I did not get the response I was expecting ( letter 2 ) . ...... Dr Gittos responded that he did not believe there were issues requiring further treatment, and he also did not respond to my request for a meeting He did however ask for the name of the surgeon who I "said" had provided the second opinion , and chided him for not "paying me the professional courtesy and has not written to me on this matter".
This was the beginning of an email exchange that left me feeling even more crushed, and I will add those details in additional posts. I am also scheduled to have a full revision tummy tuck this year - and will post the results of that journey too.
It's taken me a long time to process all of this , and its still pretty hard to dig it all up and I leave this account of my experience . It was a while ago (11/22) but the effects still linger.
Candidheart's provider
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