Abdominoplasty Results in Sydney

What results can I expect from an abdominoplasty or tummy tuck in Sydney?

Sydney Specialist Plastic Surgeon Dr Gavin Sandercoe has been in private practice since 2008 and has assessed hundreds of women to discuss their abdominal shape after weight loss or pregnancy. This experience has lead to insights into what you can expect after a tummy tuck or abdominoplasty surgery.

There are a few key factors that determine your end results, and we’ll discuss them individually.

• Weight

The closer that you are to your ideal weight (BMI = 20-25), the better your results will be. However, where your body carries any excess fat will still have major impacts. There is no easy way to measure how much fat you are carrying in various areas (DEXA scans are helpful), so it is often easiest to focus on an easy metric that everyone understands.

• Intra-abdominal fat

There are some people that carry most of their fat around their abdominal organs (visceral fat) despite having very little subcutaneous fat (between the muscles and skin). These patients are often termed ‘apple shaped’, as compared to ‘pear shaped’ patients who are usually females that carry most of their weight around their hips. Apple shaped patients will have moderate results unless or until they lose their intra-abdominal fat. Losing intra-abdominal fat is a key step in getting a flat abdomen.

• Rectus divarication/diastasis

Separation of the rectus abdominis (6-pack) muscles can occur due to any condition that increases intra-abdominal pressure. Although pressure can increase due to extra intra-abdominal fat or tumours, the most common reason is pregnancy! Rectus diastasis of much more than 3cm can lead to functional issues such as an increase in the curve of your lower spine (lumbar lordosis) and back pain. Changing the tilt of your pelvis can also lead to stress incontinence. The relationship between the distance of rectus separation and the functional problems is not linear! Specialist Plastic Surgeons in Sydney report patients with moderate to severe functional impairment at smaller separations that improve drastically after a well performed functional abdominoplasty. Equally there are some patients with wide rectus separation that have no functional problems.

• Skin excess

Many abdominoplasty patients in Sydney are looking to get rid of their excess stretched skin after weight loss and pregnancy. A standard abdominoplasty is very effective at removing moderate amounts of extra skin in the abdomen. Smaller amounts of excess skin can be removed by variations to the routine tummy tuck procedure, and severe skin excesses are often best dealt with by a Fleur de Lys or Corset Abdominoplasty

Dr Gavin Sandercoe is a Specialist Plastic Surgeon in Sydney whom believes that the most important of these factors in determining your final abdominoplasty result is the amount of intra-abdominal fat you have. Following are a few case studies that demonstrate this. I’ve selected patients that are the same age (38 years old), similar body mass index and ensured that the patients were weight stable at their 3-month photos.

It is pretty clear that the best results are seen in the flat and concave cross table patients. Even though more weight was removed from the convex patient, her result was not as impressive as the other two. The key message for patients is that your intra-abdominal fat is the limiting factor in your abdominoplasty results. Losing intra-abdominal (or visceral) fat is the key preparation in achieving your best possible result from an abdominoplasty or tummy tuck in Sydney.