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  • Tummy Tuck: Patient Evaluation and Post-Op Care
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Anytime you have some skin hanging over, I'd say you're probably a good candidate for a tummy tuck rather than liposuction. Because the tummy tuck, although it leaves a scar, can remove that hanging over skin. The tummy tuck procedure can repair that gap between the muscles that most women who've had children end up with. And that can allow your abdominal area to relax or to pooch forward. And most women want a flat abdomen. So liposuction can remove the fat but it doesn't flatten your abdomen, whereas the tummy tuck might help with that. You want to minimize the work you have to do at home. So if you can prepare ahead, have someone help you with your children, have someone help with the housework so that you can relax and recuperate.

I would say it's a major procedure and it's fatiguing. And you want to have a little help at home. Keep in mind that I, and many other surgeons like me, have our patients wear a girdle. And there often are drains and a pain pump, so there are some extraneous things that might get in your way while you're at home. The drain can help prevent seroma and it can help healing of the tissue, so you want adherence so the tissue surfaces. So it can help with that. No one likes having drains, I've learned that by taking them out of patients, but we make the experience fairly painless. Taking the drain out doesn't hurt. But it's a little annoying to have it in place while its there. You do have to maintain it, watch out for it. But it's only in for about a week.

Tummy Tuck: Patient Evaluation and Post-Op Care

Dr. D'Arcy HoneyCutt_explains what patients should expect following a tummy tuck procedure, including compression garments and drains.