“Abdominoplasty with “En block” removal of the skin island: a safe and fast approach”

Abstract

The aim of abdominoplasty is to restore a normal abdominal contour, with minimal signs of the surgery. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility, safety, and advantages of en block removal of a skin island before upper abdominal dissection during abdominoplasty. Five hundred-forty female patients who underwent abdominoplasties between January 2004 and December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. In these cases, the planned skin resection was initially made en block, as done with an elliptic skin excision. In this way, symmetric skin removal is achieved. After the removal of this skin, epigastric skin undermining was easily achieved. The mean age of the patients was 41.4 y, and the mean body mass of index was 27.3 kg/m². The mean operative time for abdominoplasty only was 98 min. Eight patients had minor skin problems, 22 patients needed aspiration for seroma formation, and 7 patients needed scar revision surgery. There was only one hematoma postoperatively. The final position of the scar from the upper vulvar commissure was 8.9 cm. The results obtained were comparable to those of classical abdominoplasty, suggesting that en block removal of the skin before upper flap dissection is a safe maneuver. En block removal of skin island at the start of the surgery has the added advantage of a reduced operative time and acceptable aesthetic outcome, without an increase in complication rates. In cases of planned abdominoplasties, we suggest that removal of the abdominal skin at the beginning of the operation is a safe and feasible procedure.

Abbreviation: PDS: polydioxanone

Keywords:

• Abdominoplasty
• skin removal
• safety

Acknowledgements

They do not have any commercial interest in the subject of the study and have received no financial or material support. The content of the article is original. The article does not infringe on any copyright or proprietary rights of any third party, is not under consideration by another journal, and has not been previously published.

Ethical approval

The studies have been approved by the appropriate institutional research ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from the patient for being included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).