Tummy Tuck: Prices, Photos, Reviews, Info, Q&A

If your doctor tries to cut out the bad stuff and reclose this wound, you will be even tighter and lose more skin.

You will end up with more scarring.

This wound will take months to deal with and likely the only surgeon who would want to deal with this at no charge to you, is the surgeon in the Dominican.

The skin is more resistant to loss of blood supply than the fat below it. Your tissue death is likely full thickness.

If you are a smoker, consider quitting now. (David Janssen, MD, FACS, Oshkosh Plastic Surgeon)

Tummy Tuck Skin Necrosis

The tummy tuck risks and complications

Unfortunately this is evolving into a problem that is going to take some time to get a point of resolution.it may even require more surgery. But not now. This looks like the front end of a developing skin necrosis whose extent has yet to become clear. I don’t see a simple fix to this problem.

It is going to take time to see how much skin will live in the involved zone and how deep the resultant wound may become. Hopefully it will just be along the incision line and will not extent too far towards the belly button. But time can only answer that question. You may consider returning home and getting local care by a plastic surgeon as this is not going to a quick fix until it is healed. (Barry L. Eppley, MD, DMD, Indianapolis Plastic Surgeon)

This may take a while to heal and may require more care than you can get in DR. It is appropriate to ask your DR surgeon to contact a plastic surgeon back in your home town to coordinate care and to ask if advanced wound care with hyperbaric oxygen should be considered. (Karol A. Gutowski, MD, FACS, Chicago Plastic Surgeon)

Tissue necrosis is a serious complication

Tummy tuck risks and complications images

Yes, you should be worried. It appears that you have necrosis of your abdominal skin and this is much more than a “skin problem”. This will likely progress to full thickness necrosis and a hard black escar, or scab. I am not sure how your doctor thinks he/she will “fix it” after you heal “for a few more days”, but this may require multiple operative debridements, wound management, and possible skin grafting.

You may want to find a board certified plastic surgeon close to your home who is willing to help with this serious complication. This may be difficult because no one wants to assume responsibility for someone else’s complication, and you should expect the costs to be much more than you would have paid if you had the surgery originally in the US. (Matthew Schulman, MD, New York Plastic Surgeon)

Tummy tuck risks and complications photos

Again cheap out of country surgery with necrosis takes months to heal. Guess the DR doc knows of a magic formula. Best to find a PS back home (USA) and what the fees will be. I assume at least a few thousand dollars. (Darryl J. Blinski, MD, Miami Plastic Surgeon)

Skin ischemia after abdominoplasty

The reason for skin ischemia (skin dying because of a lack of blood flow) is multifactorial. First are you a smoker, if you are you need to stop right away or preferably a month before the surgery Smoking decreases skin blood flow and leads to ischemic patterns as your photo have shown.

Tummy tuck risks and complications photo

Second is there a lot of tension on the incision. Lots of tension also decreases blood flow. You should keep your body flexed to reduce tension on the incision and increase blood flow. Excessive undermining of the skin flaps also may create this problem. If you see this problem early, hyperbaric oxygen treatments can decrease the amount of skin lost to inadequate blood flow. Topical use of silvadene also helps to prevent infection is an area of marginal blood flow.

Decreased blood flow increases the chances of bacteria to invade the skin. Since you have had this procedure done in DR and had a complication you will need to stay a month or more there to help with the problem. The skin will declare itself over time of what is viable and what will die.

The dead skin will need to be debrided and the wound will stay open for a long time. Eventually with proper wound care the wound will close.

Later the scar can be revised when the wound is closed. Trying to debride the skin at this stage will result in a larger area of skin necrosis. The potential to have complications when you do a procedure outside of the country does not equal the savings of a cheaper procedure. I suspect with the complication and prolonged recovery there this will cost double of what you would have paid in the states. (Benjamin Chu, MD, FACS, Honolulu Plastic Surgeon)