Abdominoplasty or tummy-tuck is one of the most frequently performed cosmetic operations. And seroma or fluid collection, when you return to the clinic with a feeling of 'water-bed' under the skin layer, is one of its commonest complications. In my blog in 2013, I wrote about quilting the tummy skin down onto the rectus sheath to obliterate the space with a Quill / Stratafix knotless barbed dissolving suture in my DIEP breast reconstruction patients, wherein tummy tissue is used to reconstruct a breast. The closure of the tummy is very similar to that of a cosmetic tummy tuck.
I am about to publish in a plastic surgery journal the results of quilting in 76 patients compared to 26 who did not have quilting. The seroma in tummies with quilting was 2.2% whereas those without quilting was 7.4%. The contour is much more pleasing, as the tension across the tummy skin is more evenly distributed. The only downside is that in some slimmer patients, the quilting can show up as puckering or dimples in the skin; however, these disappear by 10 weeks when the suture is absorbed by the body. Needless to say, I have also been using quilting in my cosmetic tummy-tuck patients too.
I am about to publish in a plastic surgery journal the results of quilting in 76 patients compared to 26 who did not have quilting. The seroma in tummies with quilting was 2.2% whereas those without quilting was 7.4%. The contour is much more pleasing, as the tension across the tummy skin is more evenly distributed. The only downside is that in some slimmer patients, the quilting can show up as puckering or dimples in the skin; however, these disappear by 10 weeks when the suture is absorbed by the body. Needless to say, I have also been using quilting in my cosmetic tummy-tuck patients too.
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