What happens during the tummy tuck procedure?

A tummy tuck or abdominoplasty procedure can vary in scope, depending upon the extent of surgery required. A full tummy tuck may take about two to six hours to complete, where as a partial tummy tuck, or a mini tummy tuck may take one to two hours.

During a standard tummy tuck procedure, two incisions are made. One incision goes to the groin, across the fold, and just beneath the apron. It runs from one hip to the other. The other incision is made from the hip point to the belly button, and then it goes back to the other hip.

Once the incisions have been made, all the excess skin and fat between the belly button and the pubic hairline gets excised, removed and discarded. Not just the excess skin gets removed in this process, but also the entire excess fat.

Thereafter, the surgeon will undermine the upper abdominal skin up to the tenth rib. There are 12 ribs, so the surgeon goes two ribs above the bottom of the rib. Here, the two big abdominal muscles are tightened. These muscles are known as “rectus abdominis.” This is a pair of two vertical muscles that normally spread apart an inch after one pregnancy, and one and a half inches after two pregnancies.

With this process, the surgeon brings back the abdomen to where it was before the first pregnancy. The process is also known as reconstituting the abdominal wall. Once this is done, the surgeon will pull the upper abdominal muscle down to the groin incision line, and sew it in place.

Thereafter, the surgeon will figure out the position of the belly button. Once the procedure is completed, the surgeon will usually leave one or two drains in exiting through either side of the groin incision suture line. These are taken out at the end of the first week after the surgery.

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