Mini vs. Full Tummy Tuck: What Can Each Address?

Key takeaways

• The video introduces rectus diastasis and the layers considered in a full tummy tuck.
• Dr. Smith explains the more limited area addressed by a mini tummy tuck.
• The discussion includes skin above the belly button and an existing C-section scar.

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• View tummy tuck before and after photographs
• Explore the recovery planner

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Video transcript

Transcript from the source video’s English caption track. Recovery examples are part of this recorded discussion; follow your own surgical team’s instructions.

0:00 Specifically with respect to the abdomen, when someone is pregnant, their uterus expands. To make room for the expanding uterus, the two rectus muscles, the six-pack muscles, can separate from each other in the midline. That leads to what's called a rectus diastasis. That's a weakening in the connective tissue between the rectus muscles. At its core, an abdominoplasty, a full abdominoplasty,

0:25 is an operation that's designed to treat the three primary anatomical layers of the abdomen. Starting on the inside, that's the abdominal wall. Then there's the subcutaneous or superficial fats over the abdominal wall, and then there's the skin that's over that. In a full abdominoplasty, like we just mentioned, we're addressing that rectus diastasis. We're often doing some liposuction to contour the fat

0:50 in the abdominal region, and then we're also doing some skin excision. And that's why with a full abdominoplasty, there is a lengthy scar that generally goes from hip to hip. It's hidden under the underwear line. There's also a scar at the belly button. A mini tummy tuck or mini abdominoplasty is a great operation for the right patient. It is certainly a less invasive procedure. It has a shorter recovery, but it's more limited in its scope.

1:17 So a mini tummy tuck is very good potentially for a patient who has skin in excess and maybe some fat excess just in the area from below their belly button to above the mons. For that region, a mini tummy tuck can be very effective. Where it falls short though is in two important places. One, generally speaking, it's very difficult to effectively perform a rectus muscle plication through a mini tummy tuck.

1:44 So if you're someone that has a recti diastasis that you're looking to treat, a mini tummy tuck probably isn't the way to go. It's also not very good at treating skin laxity that's over the belly button, so kind of between the bottom of your breasts and your belly button. If you have loose, rippled skin there, a mini tummy tuck isn't going to do that. And conceptually it makes sense because when we do a full abdominoplasty, which very effectively addresses laxity all the way down from the xiphoid

2:11 process down to the mons area, the reason you're putting an incision around the belly button is because you need to lift up the skin flap so that you can work in that area. If you're not releasing the belly button from the surrounding skin, and you try to just pull down from below like you might in a mini tummy tuck, you could imagine that not much is gonna happen to the skin and soft tissue above the belly button. In all of these procedures, if you currently have

2:37 a C-section scar, do you replace it with the abdominoplasty scar, or do you now have two scars in the pubic region? So the C-section scar, a modern C-section scar tends to be a very low scar, which is great. When we do our tummy tucks, we can pretty much always make our scar even lower. And since with a tummy tuck, a full abdominoplasty, you're removing all

3:02 of the skin between the belly button and that mons pubis below, the, the C-section scar comes with it. So you're effectively replacing the C-section scar with an abdominoplasty scar.

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