BELLY – dentrocasa magazine, November 2012

A sculpted abdomen remains among the most frequent requests for plastic surgeons. This desire is not always fulfilled because the perfect belly depends on many aspects.
The anatomical constitution does not help men and women with an android body type since the body’s distribution of fat is predominantly abdominal.
Liposuction is effective in patients with localised adipose tissues in the front and in the flanks and who want a reshaping of their silhouette or in patients with an athletic body who want to make the underlying muscular masses more evident through a further thinning of the plicae adiposae.
Another fundamental element of abdominal aesthetics is the muscular wall, in fact a strengthening of the muscle tone can guarantee an optimal containment of the abdominal viscera and confer that appearance of a flat stomach that is so coveted. The surgeon can contribute to the anatomical recovery of muscle integrity when the rectus muscles have lost their physiological position but in almost all cases it is physical exercise that produces the best results.
The quality of the skin deserves a special mention. Subjects with skin laxity can opt for a radiofrequency cycle that modestly contributes to the improvement of the skin turgor by working on the compactness of the collagen fibres,  but in patients with excess free skin, plastic interventions of the abdomen are used. Mini abdominoplasty involves a suprapubic scar and partial removal of skin in order to create adequate tension in the portion between the pubis and the abdomen. A complete abdominoplasty redraws the skin tissue of the entire belly through a more extensive incision and the reconstruction, when necessary, of the muscular wall.
It is evident how low-calorie diet, physical activity, liposuction and abdominoplasty play different and only partially overlapping roles. To simplify, it is possible to say that a controlled diet allows weight loss and a volumetric reduction of adipose tissue, liposuction redraws the body silhouette by working selectively on adipose tissue, physical activity increases the muscle tone and allows an increase in body metabolism and abdominoplasty eliminates excess skin.