How much pain is there with a Tummy Tuck?
Pain, of course, is subjective and everyone responds differently to surgery. This is one of the more painful procedures that plastic surgeons do and still allow patients to go home. It has been shown in clinical studies that if you reduce a patient’s pain initially after surgery, they take much less pain medication in the long run. I spend several minutes at the start of the surgery and near the end, infiltrating the abdominal wall and the muscle with both long and short acting local anesthetics. This helps to numb up the area of surgery, so that when you wake up, rather than being in a lot of pain, most patients are pretty comfortable. This reduction in pain means that you need less anesthesia and fewer narcotics which are the primary cause of nausea after surgery. It also allows you to get out of the recovery room sooner and home into a comfortable position where you can start taking your medications as needed. I also like to give my patients a muscle relaxant which cuts down on the
