I have been researching abdominoplasties

Question:
I have an excess of abdominal fat and skin that hangs down and I would like a tummy tuck. Is just the fat and skin removed during abdominoplasty or are the abdominal muscles tightened as well? Can you do the surgery through my C-section incision site?

Answer:
If you really have abdominal fat and skin that hangs down, a tummy tuck is certainly for you. Most patients who have tummy tucks have also had pregnancies, and since you have had a C-section, you are probably just like most patients who also have weakness of the abdominal wall.

Therefore, I would definitely want to tighten your tummy muscles, assuming that my examination at your consult confirms my suspicion. This is the case for probably 95% of my tummy tuck patients.

Usually the incision for tummy tuck can be made low enough that the original C-section incision is removed. I like to keep the scar as low as possible, so that it can be hidden underneath the bikini bottom. The surgery probably cannot be done through the C-section incision alone, because the incision has to be long enough to cut out the whole excess of abdominal skin, going from side-to-side across the tummy. Therefore, the length of the incision has to do with the length of the fold of excess skin, and how much tightening you want. At your consult, what I like to do is draw this on you with a washable marker so you can see exactly what the incision would look like based on how much excess you have.