One of the things that I've done is to incorporate a great deal of liposuction when I do a tummy tuck. I think that's part and parcel. I don't like to just pull the skin down and leave everything fat. The bottom line is I have developed a technique where I do this in my office on an out-patient, ambulatory basis under sedation anesthesia, not even general anesthesia. What I'm able to do is suction the areas of fat that are in excess. I actually do a little etching so that I can provide an athletic look to the fat itself. Then we do the tummy tuck, which of course involves a cut here and we pull down the skin, cut off the extra, but we're able to do this on an out-patient basis because we have not done a lot of skin undermining.

Most of that has been done with the liposuction so the skin moves with the liposuction without having to lift it up. It makes it a safer operation and then of course we tighten the muscles but one nice thing about it is we're using something called Exparel which is a three-day local anesthetic. I inject that to portions of the muscles and in the skin closure. As a result, the patients get up off the table after the operation. They walk to the recovery room. They stay there an hour or two. They stand up, put their clothes on and they walk out the door. A full tummy tuck. That's the difference between what we used to do years ago and what we're doing today.

Tummy Tuck and Liposuction Combo for Optimal Results

While a tummy tuck can certainly tighten the abdomen, Dr. Elliot Jacobs explains why he chooses to couple the procedure with liposuction to contour and further define the body.