Pregnancy after abdominoplasty

Abstract

A case of a 25-year-old while female, who had undergone abdominoplasty and got pregnant two and a half years later, is described. The pregnancy was uneventful and the baby was delivered at 38 weeks of pregnancy. Fifteen months after the baby was born, the patient's abdomen was reevaluated and a CT-scan was performed. At the clinical examination there was little excess skin and the patient had no weight gain. Although the patient presented a rectus diastasis of 2.8 cm measured at a level 3 cm above the umbilicus before its correction during abdominoplasty, there was no separation between the rectus muscles palpable after pregnancy. At the CT-scan slices made above and below the umbilicus, there was no evidence of recurrence of rectus diastasis. Therefore, on this case, the tissues of the myoapoueurotic layer of the abdominal wall elongated as the fetus grew, except for the area of the corrected rectus diastasis. The effect of this pregnancy was not as evident in the myoaponeurotic layer. Although it is not possible to assume that this situation will occur with all patients that may have pregnancy after abdominoplasty, correction of rectus diastasis may be a very effective procedure.