Abdominoplasty is one of the top five aesthetic surgical procedures performed in the United States, with approximately 172,500 tummy tucks performed in 2006.

Recently, The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) announced that ambulatory abdominoplasty might be safely performed at an accredited outpatient surgery facility. Findings from a retrospective analysis of outpatient abdominoplasty procedures performed over the past 10 years are published in the May/June 2007 issue of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal (ASJ), ASAPS’ official peer-reviewed journal.

“Even though these procedures are commonly performed on an outpatient basis, we had few large, published studies to support outpatient abdominoplasty as a safe and effective operation,” said W. Grant Stevens, MD, lead author of the study. “This large, long-term study clearly illustrates that these procedures may be safely performed in an accredited outpatient facility.”

The study consisted of a retrospective review of 519 consecutive abdominoplasty procedures, all of which were performed by one of two senior surgeons over 10 years at a single outpatient surgery facility certified by the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities. Further, all patients received general anesthesia administered by a board-certified anesthesiologist.

The outpatient complication rates in this study, including seroma (10.6%) and unacceptable abdominal or umbilical scars (7.9%), compared favorably with previously published complication rates for inpatient procedures.

Still, the authors caution that although outpatient abdominoplasty is safe and effective, proper follow-up care is imperative, and patients need to have responsible caretakers stay with them after surgery.

“Patients must ambulate the day of surgery and take in adequate oral fluids, and all patients need a caregiver to prompt them and help them to do this,” Stevens added. “Embolism precautions must be taken, and patients with a higher risk for medical complications may still need to be treated as inpatients.”

Said Foad Nahai, MD, FACS, president of ASAPS and associate editor of ASJ, “Based on this and other published data, we believe that when performed in an accredited facility and following our guidelines, ambulatory abdominoplasty can be a safe, convenient, and cost-effective option for properly selected patients.”