Tummy Tuck Cosmetic Surgery

Mr Adrian Richards, Leading Plastic & Cosmetic Surgeon for Aurora Clinics demonstrates a Tummy Tuck cosmetic surgery procedure. In this case a full tummy tuck cosmetic surgery procedure was performed with the tummy button isolated on a stalk. He discusses the reasons for using this technique rather than a Mini-Tummy Tuck procedure.

Tummy Tuck Cosmetic Surgery

Hello. My name is Adrian Richards. I’m a consultant plastic and cosmetic surgeon and the Medical Director of Aurora Clinics which is based in the United Kingdom. Today I’m going to be talking you through an operation I did recently on this lady who is unhappy about the appearance of her tummy. As you can see, she’s got a well healed Caesarean scar, quite extensive stretch marks which extend quite far laterally. The main thing, however, she was concerned about is this prominence on the anterior part of her abdomen which is due to lax muscles. This persisted even though she exercised significantly.

This is actually during the operation. You can see I’m marking the central area here. This is my lower incision where I’m going to make my lower cut and this is the upper part of the skin where I’m going to remove the tissue. I make extra measurements just to make absolutely sure that I’m symmetrical as possible and the scar is the same length on both sides.

I tattoo the midline with a temporary ink just to make absolutely sure that everything’s lined up so we can get the tummy button nicely in the centre. It’s very important in tummy tuck procedures to keep everything as central as possible.

Here I am just cutting around the tummy button. In this case, I’m going to relocate the tummy button. So I cut around it and then I elevate it on a stalk. You can see here it is with its stalk which supplies its blood supply.

The next stage is to cut the lower abdominal skin. I’m just going to start on the side here cutting through the skin nice and neatly. I’ve put local anaesthetic in the area so it doesn’t bleed very much.

The next stage is to elevate the skin flap from the underlying muscles. I’m just doing this slowly in this case. As you can see, I just work upwards, and here I’ve transferred to cutting diathermy to limit any bleeding.

This is the skin elevated, and you can see here I’ve really gone right up to the cartilages of the rib.

This is the rectus muscles I’m showing you here. As I said previously, it’s separated quite significantly in this lady and this is how far it’s separated. The next stage is really to sew those muscles together back to where they were originally. I do this with a long lasting stitch, but this will absorb.

Here you can see I’ve sewn the muscles back which will help flatten the tummy. That’s the tummy button protruding in the middle.

I just put some local anaesthetic in this area just to make everything as comfortable as possible afterwards.

The next stage is to remove the excess skin. I start in the middle just removing that excess skin there. This is where I’m going to bring the tummy button through. The tummy button is the original tummy button but bought through a new hole in the skin. That’s the new one created and I’m just thinning that area of the flap from underneath. That’s where I’m going to bring the hole through, and that gives a nice gentle curve to the tummy.

Here I’ve sewn the flap down, and this limits the risk of any fluid collection after the surgery. Here’s the tummy button coming through the new hole, and here it is, I’ve just sewn it in with this absorbable stitch which will need to be trimmed.

This is a trick I’ve learned to rotate the skin in from the side. This limits the length of the scar. Here I am just cutting off the excess skin in the tummy tuck region. I’ll do exactly the same on the left side in a minute, but I tend to take it off in two halves.

Here I am I’ve put in the deep stitches in the area. I’ve sewn up the tummy button, and this is the final layer here. I’m just sewing up the wound with an absorbable stitch. This doesn’t need to be removed, so no staples, no removable stitches. These stitches just need to be trimmed at one week.

This is the skin I’ve removed. You can see this is the stretch mark skin from the lower abdomen. That’s from the right side. This area here is from the left. You can see it’s as symmetrical as I can make it.

The dressings are a little dressing over the tummy button and this brown Micropore tape on the incisions. This brown Micropore tape allows you to wash, shower, and almost becomes like a second skin but gives the incision just that little bit of support which is important during this stage. Here we just rotate a little bit. You can see from the side. I hope you can see the tummy’s much flatter.

I hope you found this information useful. If you’ve any queries regarding this video or would like to make an appointment, please contact us either via our website or by phone on 01844 214362. Thank you.