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The team behind this tummy tuck comparison

The Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital is led by four consultants working inside a tertiary general hospital. Tongchun Mao, MD, is responsible for the medical review of this site. Choosing between an abdominal operation and a smaller one genuinely involves the other three: the surgical second opinion when a previous operation did not reach, the scar that becomes the problem afterwards, and the skin conditions that look like a reason for surgery and are not.

Specialist profiles

Who reviews this content

Tongchun Mao (毛彤春)

Deputy Director & Head of Aesthetic Surgery · Vice Chief Physician, Licensed Aesthetic Attending · Lead Physician of This Site

Aesthetic surgery · abdominal wall · the boundary between the two operations

Dr. Tongchun Mao is an aesthetic surgeon within the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team his role is refinement and honest referral: he is the person who says so when an operation will do better than an injectable or a device.

This whole comparison is a question Dr. Mao answers by examining rather than by offering: where the loose skin actually sits, whether the muscle separation runs above the navel or stops below it, and whether what bothers the patient is skin at all. A mini tuck is a smaller operation, not a smaller version of the same result, and he says so when the territory above the navel is the part that matters.

Clinical focus

Abdominal wall assessment: skin, fat and muscle separation as three separate findings
Deciding whether a mini tuck reaches the part of the abdomen that is actually involved
Abdominoplasty technique and the placement of the scar a patient lives with afterwards
Counselling on weight stability and pregnancy timing before any abdominal operation
Revision surgery after a previous tummy tuck, or after a mini tuck that did not reach

A mini tuck is not a smaller tummy tuck

The two operations differ in what they can address, not in how aggressive they are. A mini tuck treats skin below the navel and usually leaves the muscle alone. When the loose skin or the muscle separation sits above the navel, a mini tuck does not reach it at any technique, and no shorter incision changes that.

Shaoliang Wang (王韶亮)

Director, Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center · Vice Chief Physician, Associate Professor, Doctor of Medicine

Plastic surgery · complex abdominal cases · revision

Dr. Shaoliang Wang is Director of the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team he provides the surgical perspective and the tertiary-hospital backstop — the assessment when an operation is the honest answer, and the hospital-level care for the rare complication that needs it.

Abdominal revision is a different operation from a first tummy tuck, and it is usually a full one. Dr. Wang sees the cases where a mini tuck was asked to correct something above the navel, and he is part of the conversation about whether a further operation can change what was left.

Clinical focus

Abdominal contour after previous surgery, including after a mini tuck
Complex and revision abdominoplasty within a tertiary hospital
Assessment of a scar that has healed badly or sits poorly for the patient

Ke He (何锞)

Deputy Director & Head of Skin & Laser Aesthetics · Attending Physician, Licensed Aesthetic Attending

Skin and laser aesthetics · scar management

Dr. Ke He is Deputy Director and head of skin and laser aesthetics within the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team her role is the device and injectable assessment, and the honest referral when a problem needs an operation rather than a needle.

A tummy tuck scar matures over a long period and how it settles varies. Where a scar is raised, red, spreading or painful, that is assessed on its own terms rather than treated as a cosmetic afterthought.

Clinical focus

Assessment and management of abdominal scars as they mature
Skin quality and healing capacity before an abdominal operation
Non-surgical care of a scar that is not settling as expected

Yongbo Jia (贾勇波)

Deputy Director & Head of Dermatology · Vice Chief Physician, Licensed Aesthetic Attending

Dermatology · skin conditions of the abdominal wall

Dr. Yongbo Jia is a dermatologist within the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team his role is medical skin assessment — diagnosing and managing pigment and barrier conditions, and treating skin that a device or an injection has irritated.

Not everything that changes the look of an abdomen is loose skin or separated muscle. Rashes, infections, swelling and skin disease are assessed as medical problems first, and an operation on skin that is inflamed is deferred rather than brought forward.

Clinical focus

Dermatological assessment when the skin itself is the complaint
Skin conditions that must settle before an abdominal operation
Wound and skin healing problems after surgery

Not sure how much of your abdomen is involved?

An assessment starts with where the loose skin sits and whether the abdominal muscle has separated. We will say plainly which operation — if either — reaches the part that bothers you, and what we would advise if the answer is to wait.

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