Dr. Miguel Gallegos has noted that his tummy tuck patients, who utilize the procedure for weight loss, continue to lose about 15% of their body weight in the year after surgery.  At his office in Albuquerque, Hermosa Plastic Surgery, the latest technology is used to give you a slimmer, firmer, more youthful shape.  Sometimes sagging skin is totally resistant to diet, weight loss, and exercise. A tummy tuck can do the trick here. 

If you are under going abdominoplasty to tighten muscles and your stomach due to pregnancy, then a tummy tuck shouldn’t be performed for at least 6 months after child birth.  The skin and muscles get too stretched to be correctly resized right after a birth. 

Repositioning the naval is necessary in a larger tummy tuck that involves making incisions in carefully chosen places on the abdomen.  Large portions of excess skin are removed that conveniently also erase any stretch marks.  The doctor may also use light liposuction to improve the waist contours by removal of small fat deposits.

Tightening and stitching the abdominal muscles is necessary next, and repositioning the naval is last. Sagging skin and fat in the lower abdomen, resulting from the affects of gravity and aging can be removed in a tummy tuck, but will not affect the naval.

These steps are carefully and expertly performed by Dr. Gallegos.  The total procedure takes at least two hours. Soreness and swelling are common with this type of procedure of plastic surgery.  Staying in bed for a couple of days is advised along with not working for at least two weeks. 

If you are curious if a tummy tuck would be a good choice for you, come in or call and make an appointment for a consultation.  Miguel Gallegos, M.D. F.A.C.S. has been serving clients in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area for over 8 years.  He is a board certified plastic surgeon. 

Remarkable tuck results can be viewed here on our website.  In your quest to secure pleasing body proportions, which always include the stomach, remember the tummy tuck procedure.  You can obtain a new outlook on life with a changed attitude and a new wardrobe!

Other types of lesser invasive procedures would include liposuction alone or liposuction in conjunction with a lesser excision of skin. These are usually reserved for those who do not have excess or only a minimal excess of lower abdominal skin. The upper abdominal skin is not excessive. In these situations, recovery is faster.

For all of the procedures, the full results would not be noted for at least three months. Usually, there are still some changes occurring at six months. I recommend silicone strips and compression for scar therapy. I recommend weight loss afterward. Patients will usually lose 15 pounds with the procedures. Not that I remove 15 pounds but most patients use this as a spring board to lose more weight. The patients that I have seen that have had the best results will lose 15% of their body weight over a period of a year.

There are other types of body re-contouring procedures which are specifically tailored to certain types of patients. But in the general, the above are what I recommend. The patient satisfaction is quite high for these procedures because they can begin to wear clothing that is fitted around the midline and that shows their nice body contours.

The full abdominoplasty removes a large portion of the skin, usually that extending from just above the umbilicus down to the pubic hairline.  With this excision of skin, most of the stretch marks are removed.  With this, the muscles are tightened with stitches.  The umbilicus or belly button is left on its stalk and brought out as the available upper abdominal skin is advanced downward, hence the name “Tummy Tuck.”  During the procedure, I perform liposuction in the flanks to improve the waist contour even more.  The procedure takes approximately two hours.

a After an Abdominoplasty, there is a significant amount of soreness.  I do not really have patients that complain of sharp pain, but they do have soreness.  To get a good result, I have to pull very tight.  Patients often will be walking hunched over for about a week.  There are two drains placed underneath the skin to prevent collection of fluid.  These drains stay in approximately one week.  We provide a garment to give comfort, support, and compression.  This also helps to decrease the amount of swelling in the skin.  I usually perform this on an outpatient basis.  I find that the patients become more ambulatory and recover faster if they are allowed to go home.  Nonetheless, some choose to remain in the hospital and receive IV pain control instead of just oral pain control.

I recommend approximately two weeks off of work and then afterward, I recommend not lifting more than 20 pounds for at least two months.  The stitches that are placed underneath the skin are strong, but with excess straining, there is a potential to rip through the stitches and lose the nice effect of the muscle repair.

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Abdominoplasty, also known as “tummy tuck“, is a good way for reproducing the natural, youthful abdominal and trunk contours.  The typical situation is a young-to-middle aged woman who has had at least one child, often more than one child, who complains of excess skin and fat, and protrusion of the abdominal midline.  Although the rest of her body is often with normal proportions, this disproportion of the lower trunk is often quite noticeable in fitted clothing.  These embarrassed women often wear their shirts untucked or very baggy clothing to hide their contour irregularity, their protuberance.

What causes the protuberance is that the pregnancy results in stretching of the skin and of the musculature of the abdomen.  After the birth, there is a lot of retraction which occurs, but not always back to the pre-pregnant state.  This leaves women with excess protuberance due to muscle laxity and excess skin, often with stretch marks.  The pre-pregnancy waistline is lost as the muscle relaxes laterally as well.

Luckily, we do have treatments for this.  The full abdominoplasty removes a large portion of the skin, usually that extending from just above the umbilicus down to the pubic hairline.  With this excision of skin, most of the stretch marks are removed.  With this, the muscles are tightened with stitches.  The umbilicus or belly button is left on its stalk and brought out as the available upper abdominal skin is advanced downward.  During the procedure, I perform liposuction in the flanks to improve the waist contour even more.  The procedure takes approximately two hours.

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