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Mummy Makeover

 

There are certain changes in a woman’s body after pregnancy and giving birth. Especially after multiple pregnancies and significant weight loss, the body form does not go back to its former shape. But there is a solution for sagging breasts and sagging abdominal tissue. Combined surgery to uplift or augment sagging breasts as well as tightening the  abdominal skin and muscles (tummy tuck) is often called the ‘mummy makeover’.

The main advantage of combining both surgeries is that there is only one general anaesthetic and just one recovery time!

First, an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) is carried out: excessive skin and subcutaneous fat in-between the pubic bone and the belly button is removed; the skin and muscles are then tightened. Additionally, the fat of the flanks (the love handles) is reduced using a gentle water-jet assisted liposuction to achieve a more harmonic result. The outcome is a flat, tight belly. Full abdominoplasty does produce a scar, very similar to a Cesarean with extensions to both sides.

In the same surgery, the breasts are lifted and, if requested, augmented to the required form and volume. There are three main approaches: firstly breast uplift alone (mastopexy); secondly, breast uplift in combination with fat grafting to fill the cleavage; thirdly, upper pole and breast uplift with silicone gel implants combined with subcutaneous volume shaping via fat transfer. Fat transfer not only offers the possibility of shaping the cleavage and upper pole, but it also narrows the breasts.

For the fat transfer Dr. Hamers takes fat from unwanted fat deposits such as love handles or belly. He transplants it to the breast with EVL (expansion – vibration – lipofilling) technique. EVL is an innovative technique expanding the recipient tissue with vibration during fat transfer. The advantage is twofold. First, it results in a higher transplant volume. Second it leads to a higher take rate than conventional lipofilling techniques. This combination allows for a full, yet natural cleavage, with a distinctly female and aesthetically pleasing breast shape.

There should be no wish for more children since an increase of the abdominal volume would risk the aesthetic result.

Duration of the surgery:

approximately 4 hours

Anaesthetics:

general anaesthetic, inpatient for 1 night

Recovery:

No sports, lifting and heavy workout for 6 weeks, compression garments.

Normally fit for flying after 2 weeks

Minimally invasive, tiny incisions of about 3-5 millimeters are needed for fat to be washed out of the body. Various techniques exist. The most advantageous and gentle is water-jet assisted liposuction, using just a small cannula with a pulsation water-jet on the tip. The water-jet’s gentle loosening and washing action makes it possible for large amounts of fat to be atraumatically removed. Compared with conventional liposuction, the sculpting of tissue is more precise and there is less trauma, pain and recovery time. Apart from being, gentle and more precise, the quality of the fat cells is superior to that resulting from other techniques, meaning that a higher survival rate of the transplanted fat cells is achieved.

Having a special clinical interest in natural body contouring, Dr. Hamers can reuse the patient’s own extracted fat to shape, fill or augment various parts of the body where it might be needed (for instance face, breast and buttock, but also calves or scars).

Dr. Alexander Hamers has specialised in Water-jetstream assisted fat transfer technology since 2012.

The transplanted fat needs to grow in. That is why it needs to be treated gently. Smoking, nicotine, pressure and cold all harm the freshly transplanted fat and should be avoided in the period immediately after surgery. Once the fat is grown in, it is part of the body and just part of normal aging.

Expansion vibration lipofilling (EVL) is the latest innovation in fat transfer. Using a vibrating cannula, the recipient tissue is gently expanded while grafting the fat. This results in both, a higher graft-able volume and a better take rate of the fat (higher percentage of fat cells growing in and remaining). Thus, if desired, more fat cells can be transferred to the same recipient area compared with conventional techniques. Dr. Hamers is the first surgeon to have established the EVL technique in Europe.

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