Who is a candidate?
Many women I see have just a little bit of extra skin – enough skin to be loose when wearing form fitting jeans, causing an annoying bulge at the waistline. Often these patients have little fat. The problem results from stretched skin due to pregnancy or major weight loss. For these patients, a full abdominoplasty can’t be done, as they don’t have enough looseness in the skin of the upper abdomen. Remember, a full tummy tuck usually removes all the tissue from the belly button to the pubic area.
I also see this problem in women with high belly buttons, or who are very short-waisted. A mini abdominoplasty removes a wedge of skin and fat from the lower belly to tighten and contour the abdomen. The scar looks like an extended C section scar. There is no scar at the belly button.
Those who have extra fat as their major issue, where the loose skin is a lesser problem, miniabdominoplasty is a useful surgery. An advantage to this procedure is I can safely combine it with aggressive liposuction. (In a full tummy tuck, you cannot liposuction the abdomen safely- it is the blood supply to heal the incision- but in a mini tummy tuck you can. In both procedures it is safe to liposuction the flanks, back, and thighs). In these women fat is their primary issue, but they have some excess skin, so liposuction alone would leave their skin hanging. A miniabdominoplasty is a great option for them. This is not as painful as a tummy tuck when we do not tighten the underlying muscles. And we can place the scar low, as we are not removing as much skin.