Abdominoplasty Patient #1

This is a 44-year-old woman from a suburb of Chicago who presented to Dr. Sweis complaining of having excess fullness along with the abdominal, hip, and thigh regions. Upon physical examination, it appeared that the areas in need of attention were the abdomen, flanks, hips, lower back, and outer thighs. She had undergone two C-Sections with a resulting indentation of the C-Section scars. Dr. Iliana Sweis proceeded with a mini-abdominoplasty to release and remove the previous C-section scars as well as liposuction of the upper abdomen, waist region, flanks, outer hips, outer thighs, and lower back.

The postoperative photos were taken 10 weeks following the mini-abdominoplasty and extensive liposuction. The scar is still red which is normal during the early healing period. In general, the color will fade over the course of healing. The time for the fading and improvement of the scar varies from patient to patient, but it can take anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. This patient also had residual bruising along the back of her thighs that took a bit longer than usual to resolve. The bruising may be seen in her photographs as longitudinal lines along the back of her thighs. The bruising was limited to the imprint left by the rectangular foam pads placed under her compression garment.