An abdominoplasty is an operation to remove excess skin and fat and/or repair muscles in the abdominal region. During the surgery, the surgeon will make an incision across the body from one hip to the other just below your bellybutton. They will then remove excess skin and fat from around this area and realign your abdominal muscles, stitching them into place so that they work more optimally and better support your internal organs.
An abdominoplasty is often required after acaesarian section and to address issues caused by surgical scars and excessive skin after pregnancy. Pregnancy is a leading cause of weaknesses in the abdominal wall or separation of the rectus abdominus muscle, resulting in back pain, inability to activate your abdominal muscles and an abdominal bulge called a hernia. However, men or women may require an abdominoplasty to remove excessive skin after weight loss or to address an injury or weakness in the abdominal wall, such as a hernia.
After the surgery, you will be given a support garment to wear to ensure that your abdominal organs don’t put too much pressure on the healing muscles and skin. Your surgeon will recommend you rest for 2 weeks and avoid lifting heavy things for at least 6 weeks post-surgery.
After the abdominoplasty, physiotherapy can help with your recovery, especially if prior to the surgery your abdominal muscles felt weak. Following surgery, our physiotherapists can ease and reduce swelling with soft tissue release and lymphatic drainage, as well as help with wound management and care. We’ll then work with you to gradually regain flexibility in your abdomen and provide you with gentle activation exercises for your abdominal muscles. As you go through your recovery, we’ll slowly build these up so that you can return to more strenuous activity at 3 months post-op.
The programme will address any weaknesses that may have developed due to long-term compensation for abdominal weakness. Depending on the sporting activity that you want to return to, we’ll then tailor your programme to do returning to that activity.
Most people get back to all their normal activities after 3 months, but be aware that it can take up to a year to fully recover and reach the same level of activity you were capable of pre-surgery or before you developed the abdominal problems.
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