Study of the combination between abdominoplasty and extensive liposuction and its effect on abdominal skin flap viability and the rate of complications

Abstract

Objective:

The aim of this research was to study the safety of full abdominal liposuction in conjunction with abdominoplasy with modifying dissection sites, and to evaluate the rate of common complications.

Methods:

This is a prospective study. Between June 2019 and November 2020, 19 female patient were treated in plastic surgery division at Al-Mouwasat university hospital in Damascus with lipoabdominoplaty. We excluded patients with previous history of liposuction or with major surgeries on the abdomen. Clinical assessment based on BMI (body mass index) before the surgery and detailed history. We evaluated the hospitality duration, drainage output, wound healing phases and complications. We compared our study results to the results of traditional abdominoplasty as reported in the medical literature.

Results:

In this technique, we did full abdominal liposuction, then excised the skin ellipse below the umbilical level, and dissected the flap above the umbilicus until the xyphoid to create a tunnel ranging from four to six cm in width, and performed fascial plication above and below the umbilicus.

Statistically, we found this combination does not increase wound dehiscence rate provided not to dissect beyond the tunnel. On the other hand, this combination increases the total drainage output volume, but does not increase the drainage duration.

Conclusion: the combination of liposuction and abdominoplasty is relatively safe, though it needs some time to learn this technique.