Body Case #4270

This is a 30 year old woman who had two children and developed a Diastasis Recti which needed repair.  She was actually thought to have a hernia, but CT scan proved that she did not have any abdominal wall defect. We decided to go ahead with the tummy tuck and during the course of that procedure I was able to reapproximate the two rectus abdominus muscles in the midline by creating an internal corsett and suturing them together.  I have a video demonstrating the incredible laxity of this patient's abdominal muscles from inside the OR on my diastasis recti blog.  If you are interested in why this is such a problem, I think it's very descriptive as seeing is understanding.

Recovery for this woman was a little bit prolonged because of the large size of the muscle separation that needed to be overcome.  She felt quite tight and it took her about 6 weeks to feel like herself again when the average is more like 2-3 weeks.  However, the results are good and she seems quite happy with her outcome.

Note: I updated these photos in April of 2016 because the patient came in for a one year follow up - which means I can show you photographs of her progress at one year.  Previously, I had only been able to post images of her at the 3 month postop mark.  I hope this helps!

• Patient #: 4270
• Gender: Female
• Ethnicity: African-American
• Age: 26 - 30
• Procedure: Tummy Tuck