Standard Abdominoplasty

Interested in Abdominoplasty Surgery? Adrian Richards describes a recent procedure he carried out below. 

Hello, my name’’s Adrian Richards. I’’m a Plastic Surgeon and the Surgical Director of Aurora Clinics based here in the United Kingdom.

Today I’’m going to be talking you through an operation I did recently on a lady who was unhappy about the appearance of her tummy. She had a well-healed Caesarean scar, and quite extensive stretch marks which extended quite far laterally.

The main thing, however, she was concerned about was a prominence on the anterior part of her abdomen which was due to lax muscles, and this persisted even though she exercised significantly.

I measured and marked the lady up, making absolutely sure that I’ was as symmetrical as possible and the scar would be the same length on both sides. I tattooed the midline with a temporary ink, just to make absolutely sure that everything’ was lined up, to allow me to get the tummy button nicely in the centre.

It’’s very important in tummy tuck procedures to keep everything as central as possible.

In this case, I’ relocated the tummy button. So I cut around it and then I elevated it on a stalk. The next stage is to cut the lower abdominal skin, nice and neatly. I’ put local anaesthetic in the area to stem the bleeding.

I elevated the skin flap from the underlying muscles using cutting diathermy to limit any bleeding. The next stage was to sew those muscles together, back to where they were originally. I did this with a long-lasting stitch that will eventually absorb.

Sewing the muscles back helps flatten the tummy, then the next stage is to remove the excess skin. Starting in the middle, I removed the excess skin and brought the tummy button through a new hole I created, to give a nice gentle curve to the tummy.

I sewed the flap down to limit the risk of any fluid collection after the surgery, then cut off the excess skin in the tummy tuck region. I tend to take it off in two halves, so I’ did exactly the same on the left side.

I’ put in deep stitches in the area, sewed up the tummy button and then sewed up the wound with an absorbable stitch which doesn’t need to be removed. So no staples, no removable stitches, these stitches just need to be trimmed at one week.

I removed a lot of stretchmarked skin from the lower abdomen on both sides, as symmetrically as I could. The dressings were a little dressing over the tummy button and brown micropore tape on the incisions. The micropore tape allows you to wash, shower and almost becomes like a second skin that gives the incision just that little bit of support which is important during this stage. The tummy was much flatter at the end of the surgery.

I hope you’’ve found this information useful. If you have any queries or would like to make an appointment, please contact us on 01324 578290 or email mailto:info@aurora-clinics.local.