Tummy Tuck Information

Another story regarding patient safety and the importance of conducting extensive pre-surgical doctor screenings has come out, down under, in New Zealand.

New Zealand Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson has asked their national Medical Council to review a surgeon’s competence after a female patient complained about the services he provided.

The surgeon, known in the commissioner’s report only as “Dr. B” is a general surgeon who had trained in cosmetic surgery and worked at an outpatient cosmetic surgery practice.

In March 2006, the patient had abdominoplasty surgery – a procedure to get rid of the large amount of excess skin on her lower abdomen that was leftover after a previous liposuction treatment.

A couple of months after the surgery the woman developed a hematoma in her lower abdomen and ended up needing more liposuction treatments to remove the excess fluid and then further surgery to eliminate the hematoma.

In a post-surgery consultation with the surgeon in February 2007, the patient expressed dissatisfaction with the results of the tummy tuck surgery to the doctor. The doctor replied, saying that the excess skin was normal and in no way due to hematomas.

Independent advisers to the commissioner discovered that the surgeon did not provide appropriate standards of care which could be expected of a doctor who was a general surgeon who practiced cosmetic surgery exclusively. The commissioner recommended the cosmetic surgeon be referred to the Medical Council for a competency review.

According to Patterson, once the surgeon’s competency review is complete, a copy of the commissioner’s report will be sent to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and be available on the Health and Disability Commissioner website.

As medically-supervised weight management grows and changes, so does plastic surgery. Nearly 125 years ago, we saw the advent of the Tummy Tuck, the original body contouring procedure. Some 75 years later, came Liposuction and since then, a whole new crop of body contouring surgeries, such as the panniculectomy, have come and gone.

Today, weight-loss patients and specialists have a new plastic surgery procedure to consider: the Bra-Line Backlift.

The Bra-Line Backlift was developed by Dr. Joseph Hunstad, with the intention of treating excess back skin following massive weight-loss surgeries like gastric bypass. Following massive weight-loss, fatty tissue is suctioned out, using some light liposuction but the Backlift essentially is an upside down tummy tuck, on your back.

Instead of a horizontal incision across the waistline with a tummy tuck, the doctor makes an incision across the upper-middle back (one of the few detractors for men, given the inability to hide the scar with a bra or bathing suit), tightens the muscles and removes excess accumulations of skin.

Dr. Richard D’Amico, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons says that he sees this as more of a “completion procedure”, than anything else. A procedure that might conclude a mommy makeover, for example, as opposed to a primary treatment option.

August 20th, 2008. A Martinez, California woman was sentenced to 9 months in prison for identity theft, using another woman’s stolen credit cards to subsidize payment for a Mommy Makeover, consisting of a Breast Lift, Liposuction and Tummy Tuck.

Londie Bowman, 32, is scheduled to surrender to Marin County sheriffs in October, according to her public defender and a spokesperson for the courts. Bowman, scheduled the procedure for February but only had about $12,000, a little over half of the cost for the group of procedures, but it wasn’t until after she had them when her theft caught up with her.

After her procedure, a complimentary get-well bouquet was sent from the plastic surgeon’s office, Plastic Surgery Specialists in Greenbrae to the victim of the identity theft, Maija Lamberts. When Ms. Lamberts started asking questions about why she received the bouquet, the details of the theft came to light. When Bowman contacted the plastic surgeon to inquire about a lingering itch near her navel, local authorities were able to intercept her on a return visit to the surgeon’s office.

Its probably fair to say that while the number of plastic surgery procedures being performed every year is consistently on the rise in America, a lot of people are in the dark about new procedures or even a little unsure about what more common (albeit similar) procedures are intended for.

Just because most of us have heard of several related or similar procedures, such as Liposuction, Tummy Tuck surgery (”Abdominoplasty”), Body Contouring and even a newer one: Mommy Makeover, doesn’t mean that its common knowledge what these procedures are intended for. Hopefully, this post will help shed at least a little bit of light on the matter…

Liposuction is a procedure where surgical devices are inserted into the skin and are used to “suck” the excess fat cells out of the body. There are many different techniques for this procedure, some relying on laser technology and some that almost or do qualify as “minimally invasive”.

Tummy Tuck is the process of tightening (in some cases removing) excess, hanging skin after weight loss. As is the case with Liposuction, there are a variety of Tummy Tuck techniques, ranging from invasive to minimally-invasive, and some relying on cutting-edge technological advancements.

Body Contouring is actually a combination of procedures that typically can include Liposuction, Tummy Tuck, Gastric Bypass (usually in extreme cases), and even sometimes buttocks augmentation. Body Contouring is also sometimes referred to as a Body Lift and during its inception was used mainly as a treatment for massive weight loss, such as Gastric Bypass.

The Mommy Makeover is a recent development in the world of aesthetic and plastic surgery. This is similar to Body Contouring in that it usually consists of several procedures, performed at one time, but are specifically custom-tailored to new mothers who have trouble returning to their pre-pregnancy figure through natural means alone. Mommy Makeovers frequently include either a breast lift or sometimes augmentation, in conjunction with the above-mentioned procedures.

…Now that we know a little about Body refining plastic surgery procedures, its a good idea, to research further, learn all the pros and cons of every procedure and speak with a plastic surgeon, preferably a board certified surgeon, and ask questions and view their before and after photos, in order to best evaluate their work.