Patient Questions: Mini Tummy Tuck vs Full Tummy Tuck?

Yours is a question that we receive frequently.  Part of the answer to it is a function of your expectations. Are you willing to accept less dramatic results in exchange for having a smaller procedure?

Given your history of multiple c-sections for the delivery of 11lbs babies, I do not believe that  your “ab work” has “pushed your stomach out”.  Rather, you have a diastsis recti that prevents your abdominal wall from effectively restraining the mass of the contents of your abdomen from pushing forward through this opening , and giving your abdomen an overall convex shape.

Secondly, the issue is not whether you are “fussed” or not about your stretch marks.  The real issue is that your abdominal skin has been stretched from your pregnancies and weight gain so that it has lost a good deal of its elasticity, and is now somewhat redundant and dependent.

The reason for you to do a full abdominoplasty, rather than a “mini”, is not to remove all the stretch marks on your abdomen, but to remove all of the excess skin, so that it drapes properly over your abdomen. A miniabdominoplasty will not allow your surgeon access to remove the appropriate amount of skin.  It will also not allow him to perform a complete repair of your diastasis recti.

The result will be that you will continue to have excess hanging skin, particularly laterally, and your abdomen will continue to have an overall convex shape unrelated to, and never to be improved by, your sit up regime.  You would be far better served to undergo the appropriate surgery without cutting corners, and accept the trade off of a slightly longer scar for an overall improvement in your abdominal contour and aesthetics.