Tummy Tuck

The operating room is one of the safest places on the plant. Where else do find yourself surrounded by at least 4 or 5 professionals who’s occupation is to keep you safe? The culture in American operating rooms is one of a team. No longer is the surgeon absolute master. Every healthcare professional has a right and duty to speak up to, comment, or to question. In this way, the patient has at least 8 pairs of eyes and 4 brains with them at all times. While the room feels cold, serious attention is paid to keeping the patient warm. Circulating air blankets, warm IV fluid and body temperature monitoring allow warm tissues to function as they should. Warming the skin prevents infection in a more profound way than any known antibiotic. The initial anesthetic goes in via an intravenous line and sleep follows within seconds. While the patient is asleep, a soft plastic tube is inserted from the mouth into the throat to keep the patient’s airway open to the flow of oxygen. Safety monitoring equipment is watched by the anesthesiologist and nurses continually. The incision across the bottom of the abdomen is made down to, but not through the muscle. The skin and fat are elevated off the muscle towards the navel. The navel is left in place by cutting skin around it. Finally, the skin and fat are lifted up all the way to the bottom of the ribs. At this point, the separation of the rectus muscles that happened during pregnancy is repaired. This reduces the ability of the abdominal contents to protrude out from the lower abdomen. Long, continuous sutures synch the waist in like an internal corset. Uncomfortable for the 1st few days, this is the part of a tummy tuck patient’s appreciate most. It helps to return the abdomen to a pre-baby or pre-overweight look. The patient is then placed in a flexed position so that a maximal amount of skin can be removed. After it’s removal, it is waited and then discarded. Almost all patients are curious about the weight of what was removed. Now for a new innovation brought about by Dr. Harlan Pollock in Dallas, Texas and brought to Indianapolis by our practice; No drains! When the average tummy tuck patient is asked after she is healed what the worst thing about her experience was, she almost always says “The drains.” We perform Dr. Pollock’s drainless technique. It involves the placement of additional sutures to stabilize the abdominal wall and skin together. This not only closes the space drains are normally placed in to, thus avoiding fluid build up, but it distributes the tension of a tight wound closure throughout the abdomen, not just on the scar. Long-term, we feel this will give a better cosmetic result. All sutures are self-dissolving underneath the skin. The last layer is what dress makers would call an invisible hem stitch. We call it a subcuticular closure, but it is the same thing. The dressing is a clear plastic Saran Wrap looking material. It is waterproof, so showering is possible anytime postoperatively.