Revision Abdominoplasty with Truncal Liposculpting: A 10-Year Experience

Abstract

Introduction: Abdominoplasty is one of the most popular body-contouring procedures. Despite its popularity, classic abdominoplasty is still associated with a significant rate of complaints from patients such as: fullness of flanks and epigastric areas, lack of a posterior lumbar curve, hanging skin over the incision line, and visible scars over the flanks and beyond underwear or swimming suit coverage. This study reviews the authors' experience in redo abdominoplasty when the patient is not or partially satisfied with the primary procedure.

Patients and methods: A total of 115 female and 32 male patients underwent revision abdominoplasty with truncal liposculpting between 2007 and 2016. The age distribution of patients ranged from 33 to 73 years, with a mean of 43.1 years. All the patients included in the study had undergone classic abdominoplasty in a different institution. Overall satisfaction with the body appearance after the combined procedure was rated on a scale of 1-5, where 1 is 'poor,' 2 is 'fair,' 3 is 'good,' 4 is 'very good,' and 5 is 'excellent.' The evaluation was made 12 months after the composite body-contouring procedure.

Results: Four hundred to 1500 ml of fat were obtained with liposuction (mean 840 ml). The amount of clean, adipose tissue transplanted to the buttocks varied from 95 to 425 (mean 286 ml) and to the lower limbs from 75 to 270 ml (mean 195 ml). The stromal-enriched lipograft technique was used in all the cases to enrich the fat transplantation. There was no hematoma, infection or deep vein thrombosis. Seventy-five percent reported that their appearance after composite body contouring was 'very good' to 'excellent' (30% 'excellent' and 45% 'very good') and 20% responded that their appearance was 'good.' Only 5% of patients thought their appearance was less than good ('fair'). The average follow-up time for this group of patients has been 6.3 years (range 1-10 years).

Conclusion: Truncal liposculpting with modified abdominoplasty accomplishes very good aesthetic results in a single surgical procedure with a low rate of complications and high patient satisfaction in cases of revision abdominoplasties.

Level of evidence v: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Keywords: Abdominoplasty; Body contouring; Lipoabdominoplasty; Revision abdominoplasty.