Planning an Abdominoplasty? Here’s What Your Post-abdominoplasty hospital stay looks like
Let’s be frank — nobody looks forward to spending their days in a hospital bed. But there are times when a hospital stay is required. Undergoing a major surgery, including body contouring operations like abdominoplasties, is one such time. An abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck surgery, removes excess skin, fat, and connective tissue from the lower abdomen, and belly. Any abdominoplasty larger than a mini tummy tuck, which is more limited in scope, puts your body under enough stress to warrant a hospital stay after surgery.
This article will explain what you can expect in the immediate aftermath of your abdominoplasty surgery. We will look at the recommended length of your hospital stay and provide a forecast for your recovery.
Preparing For Your Abdominoplasty
Before your abdominoplasty surgery, you will have two if not more, comprehensive consultation sessions with your surgeon. The surgeon will tell you how to prepare for the operation by making lifestyle changes like quitting smoking and following the proper diet.
You will be placed under general anaesthesia during the operation while the surgeon performs the abdominoplasty. While on the operating table, you are a passive participant. But once the surgery is complete and you regain consciousness, you need to take responsibility for your own recovery.
Every patient follows a unique recovery pattern after cosmetic surgery. But still, what your recovery ultimately looks like comes down to your decision-making after the surgery.
What to Expect After Your Abdominoplasty
Abdominoplasties are very popular among Australian patients. An abdominoplasty is major surgery and can be challenging to recover from, even without any postoperative complications.
There’s no avoiding the discomfort you will feel immediately after the surgery. Commonly reported unpleasant feelings that abdominoplasty patients struggle with immediately after surgery are:
- Tight wound dressings on the incisions on your abdomen and belly button
- Bruising and swelling of your belly
- Feelings of numbness in areas where fat and tissue were removed
- Tugging sensations in your abdomen
- Inability to move around freely
- Stretching sensations where your skin was pulled tight after surgery
All abdominoplasty patients share these discomforts. Unfortunately, some patients reduce the risk of developing postoperative complications more than others. Some complications that could arise following an abdominoplasty include, but are not only limited to:
- Seromas
- Hematomas
- Wound infection
Signs of these abdominoplasty complications are often spotted in patients during their first week post-surgery. In cases where patients do end up developing postoperative complications, it’s much easier to be at the hospital so that you can get the proper medical treatment and aftercare.
Hospital Stays: The Safer Option Post-Abdominoplasty
If the thought of spending a few days in the hospital after a tummy tuck procedure is unappealing, consider this: If you were experiencing complications from abdominal surgery, would you rather request someone to drive you back to the hospital in your weakened state or have a staff of nurses and doctors on call? For us, the answer is simple. Staying in the hospital safeguards patients and improves recovery.
Length of Your Hospital Stay
Our recommendation is that you spend a few days in the hospital after your abdominoplasty comes from a place of caring for your well-being. While it may be medically safe for patients to return home (with a driver) after the abdominoplasty on day 1. Moving from place to place after a surgery that lasts several hours is sure to be unpleasant. Most tummy tuck patients will agree the immediate aftermath of the surgery is the most challenging period to endure in terms of discomfort. Day 1 tends to be the worst day for patients.
One of the best ways to make it through these uncomfortable first few days of recovery is by booking a hospital stay for a few days. A multi-year study (January 2015 to December 2019) published in The Journal of Modern Plastic Surgery found that over a period of five years, the average length of a hospital stay for post-abdominoplasty was 6.6 days (ref 1). Our recommendation for abdominoplasty patients is to stay two nights at a minimum and go up to seven days, depending on the scope of the surgery.
Benefits of Booking a Hospital Stay After an Abdominoplasty
While staying in the hospital for up to two to four weeks or a week or more is by no means necessary, a few days of rest in a nurturing environment will make you feel much better. A hospital stay after an abdominoplasty has many benefits for patients looking for a smooth and speedy recovery. Some of the ways booking a stay in a country hospital can be beneficial to patients are:
More Helping Hands
Rather than just relying on spouses or other family members to look after you in the first few days after surgery, being in a hospital places you in professional care. Doctors, nurses, and other medical workers strive around the clock to ensure patients’ comfort. And after a major abdominoplasty, we need all the extra help we can get.
Pain Relief at Home Vs. Hospital
There will be pain after an abdominoplasty. The simple truth is that a hospital is much better equipped to provide pain relief than your home. In the first week after the surgery, having access to a higher standard of care and pain medication makes managing post-operative pain much easier.
Everything is Monitored
Having doctors around to monitor your recovery in the first few days after the surgery allows them to detect the emergence of any complications in advance. Should a patient’s condition suddenly deteriorate, the staff can spring into action based on the doctor’s observations.
Fast Response Time during Emergencies
While friends and family might not always be available, your medical staff certainly are. Regardless of when you need medical assistance, you can be certain that you will get it while staying as a hospital patient.
Many complications seen after an abdominoplasty are not life-threatening. However, they can be a source of problems if not promptly corrected. This is why staying in the hospital for a few days after a tummy tuck is recommended. However, it’s not necessary to do so. A study published in 2006 that compared out-patient and in-patient abdominoplasty procedures concluded that the operation can be performed in an out-patient surgery clinic without sacrificing safety or effectiveness (ref 2).
Returning to Normalcy: Tips to Recover at Home
After a few days, it is both medically safe and physically comfortable for you to leave the hospital. Giving the stitches time to set and the incision wound to heal in a hospital environment will give you a leg-up on the recovery process, but there’s no place like home. A 2022 thesis titled “Factors Affecting Patient Satisfaction Following Abdominoplasty” found that a more extended hospital stay is linked to lower patient satisfaction after surgery (ref 3). So don’t stay in the hospital longer than is necessary for your well-being.
Once you are back home, keep the following tips and your surgeon’s advice in mind to make taking pain medication speed up your healing:
Keep Your Blood Flowing
Taking short, low-intensity walks helps your blood circulation, which helps in healing. It also prevents blood clots from forming, which could lead to fatal complications like Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
Get Ample Rest
You will need to set aside a few more days for recovery at home. Stay away from house and office work for the first week and focus on resting. Your surgeon will give you notes on how to lie down in a way that does not upset the placement of your stitches. Stay away from activities like driving, strenuous exercise alone, and sexual intercourse.
Take Proper Care of the Wound Site
Some abdominoplasty methods involve leaving in a drain for excess fluids. You should monitor the wound and report any signs of bleeding or infection to your surgeon. Once you are back home, you must ensure the dressings stay dry. This will mean avoiding showers and taking sponge baths for at least two or three weeks. You will also have to follow the surgeon’s directions on wearing compression garments like abdominal binders for a few weeks, which aid healing around the incision.
Consulting Your Surgeon About Your Hospital Stay
You should only entrust an operation as complex as abdominoplasty to an experienced specialist surgeon. Ideally, your surgeon should help you arrange your hospital stay after the tummy tuck. The surgeon will also be able to tell you exactly how many days you should spend in the hospital. Abdominoplasty patients’ bodies undergo a drastic change after the surgery, and it’s not reasonable to expect them to bounce back within a day. This operation heralds a big change, and no phase should be rushed- especially your recovery!
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I need to stay in the hospital after a tummy tuck?
The standard of aftercare for abdominoplasties has been raised from where it was a decade ago. While patients would earlier be allowed to return home on the same day as the surgery, today’s prevailing wisdom suggests staying at least one night. In fact, if you have had an extended, circumferential, or fleur-de-lis abdominoplasty, where large amounts of skin and fat were removed, you should consider staying for at least six weeks and several days, up to a week.
Can I go home on the same day as my tummy tuck surgery?
Technically, yes, you can go home on the same day you have an abdominoplasty. But if you ask your surgeon, he will probably advise against it. This is because the first day is full of discomfort, and travelling home or doing chores on the same day can aggravate your stitches and recovering muscles. At the very least, a night’s rest allows your body time to rest after undergoing surgery that lasts for hours.
How long after the tummy tuck can I go home?
The abdominoplasty operation itself can last from one-and-a-half to three-and-a-half hours. After that, once you recover from the anaesthesia, it’s advisable to stay in the hospital overnight. But there are many cases where abdominoplasty patients go home on the same day. There are risks and difficulties associated with going home on the same day, but the decision is left to the patient’s discretion.
Do you have to be in bed rest after a tummy tuck?
No, you do not have to rest in bed after an abdominoplasty. Neither should you be engaging in heavy physical exertion. You will be advised to take slow, short walks for the first few days after returning home. As the weeks pass and your recovery progresses, you will be able to up the intensity of your physical activities.
Sources
- Omar Alameri, Medhat Emil, Dalal Al Mansoori, Anoud Al Qaydi, Aysha Al Naqbi, Ibrahim Al Marzooqi, Dalia Medhat Habib, Shamsa Alameri (2023) “Clinical Outcome of Abdominoplasty Cases—A Five-Year Retrospective Study” Modern Plastic Surgery, Vol.13 No.1, January 2023
- Jamie I Spiegelman; Ronald H Levine (2006) “Abdominoplasty: a comparison of outpatient and inpatient procedures shows that it is a safe and effective procedure for outpatients in an office-based surgery clinic” Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 2006 Aug
- Sarah K Nyakiongora (2022) “Factors Affecting Patient Satisfaction Following Abdominoplasty” [Thesis] [University of Nairobi, Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS)]
