Dreaming of the attractive, flat stomach of your youth? The abs you had before kids? Before you turned 40 or gained and lost those last 15 pounds – again and again? An abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck, can give you back that fabulous, contoured stomach.
Even better – Dr. Sanders’ drainless tummy tuck technique makes the whole procedure more convenient and more comfortable.
Traditional Abdominoplasty – Inconvenient Drains, Uncomfortable Removal
In most abdominoplasty procedures, your plastic surgeon will insert one or more surgical drains to help prevent fluid build-up behind the area that was operated on. This allows the lifted tummy skin and the space between the skin and muscle to eventually heal shut. Each surgical drain is a clear tube that is placed through a very short incision below the main abdominoplasty incision.
Usually, your surgeon will have the drain tube exiting your abdomen through one, two or three incisions, leading to a small bulb that collects the excess fluid.
You’ll also have pain pumps – tiny, painless, disposable tubes which are placed into the area of muscle tightening and provide continuous infusion of local anesthetic to manage your postoperative pain.
As you can imagine, tubes and bulbs hanging from your stomach are inconvenient and unsightly at best – and often very uncomfortable. You can pin them to your clothing or create a makeshift belt to tie them around your waist. But there’s no escaping the fact that you’ve got several tubes sticking out of your stomach for a week or more. Plus, each bulb needs to be emptied of the collected fluid several times a day.
How long you will have the drains in place depends on how much drainage you have. The surgical drains may be removed anytime from 3 to 15 days or more. Additionally, they may not all come out at once, since your drainage may be uneven.
To remove the drain, your plastic surgeon pulls the tube out. This can be very painful. In fact, most people say this is the worst part of the entire abdominoplasty!
The Drainless Tummy Tuck
Los Angeles plastic surgeon Dr. Sanders bypasses the traditional use of drains in his abdominoplasty procedure by using a special technique. He stitches the tummy skin to the underlying muscle layer which obliterates the traditional space left between the lifted skin and muscle – removing the need for a drain.
What Happens to the Excess Fluids?
Of course, the first question Dr. Sanders’ LA drainless tummy tuck patients ask is if the fluid is not being drained from the body, what happens to it? It is simply absorbed back into the body, naturally and painlessly.
The Benefits of Going Drainless
It goes without saying that not having tubes you have to regularly drain for a week or more is a major convenience. And not having to have those tubes eventually pulled out is a real benefit to Dr. Sanders’ drainless tummy tuck technique. Plus you’re able to shower just as soon as the pain pumps are removed. You can quickly get back to your regular, active life, ready to show your slim new stomach to the world!
In addition to drainless tummy tuck, Dr. Sanders performs a variety of other body contouring procedures. He is proud of his reputation as one of the most experienced Los Angeles liposuction, thigh lift and arm lift specialists. Dr. Sanders is dedicated to remaining abreast of the latest developments in the field of cosmetic surgery – a commitment that allows him to offer patients such leading-edge procedures as buttock lift in Los Angeles. Please explore the respective procedure pages to learn more about these and other treatments performed by Dr. Sanders.