Tummy Tuck

So tummy tuck surgery or an abdominoplasty is a procedure that removes excess skin from the abdomen or the tummy area. And it's usually patients that have had a few kids, their skin has stretched from the pregnancy. You know, patients typically, are patients that work out a lot, or the patients that just cannot get rid of the . . . you know, they work out, they can't do enough exercises to get rid of the loose skin. If they don't work out, that loose skin or skin laxity will never disappear. And what a tummy tuck or abdominoplasty procedure does is remove that excess skin and then you tighten the skin up, and then the skin is pulled down to further flatten and tighten out the skin. I want the patient to have a good recovery. There is no secret for a good recovery. Handle the tissue with care, okay, minimal trauma, minimal bleeding. The patient will respond with less of an inflammatory response, less pain, and so they're going to recover better. Your body does not know that it's having a tummy tuck. It doesn't say, "Oh, it's not a big deal surgery." You know, so your body just responds. It's a trauma. It responds. If you minimize the trauma, there's minimal . . . and the body sees it as minimal trauma to the abdominal area, the tummy area, then it's going to respond with less inflammation and less pain. So that's the difference that, you know, when a patient comes in, I practically, I tell them that's what I strive for with every single patient. Patients should not be fearful of an abdominoplasty because it should not be this excruciating pain where the patient can't walk, can't move. I see my patients the very next day, and they walk into my office the very next day. And they walk in standing straight up and not hunched over. And again, it goes back to the same thing, handle the issue with care, minimal trauma, the patients will do well.