Safety in Office-Based Full Abdominoplasty

Abstract

BACKGROUND: As demand for outpatient procedures has increased, abdominoplasties are now judiciously being performed in accredited outpatient facilities. Previous reports on outpatient abdominoplasties are limited by small cohorts and have not distinguished among different types of body contouring procedures. Furthermore, these reports included patients who remained in the hospital overnight, rather than patients who were discharged within hours postoperatively. OBJECTIVES: The authors review a case series of patients who underwent full abdominoplasty procedures performed in an outpatient facility with same-day discharge. METHODS: Charts were retrospectively reviewed for 319 consecutive patients who underwent full abdominoplasty with the senior author (CLM) between 1992 and 2010. The charts of 206 patients for whom complete electronic medical record data were available were analyzed as a separate cohort. Demographic, operative, and postoperative data were collected. Systemic and local complications were assessed, as were revision rates. RESULTS: No patients in this series developed any systemic complications, including deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, blood transfusion, intra-abdominal perforation, or death. The most common local complication was seroma, at a rate of 19.4%. CONCLUSIONS: This report serves to add to the literature a large cohort of patients who underwent full abdominoplasty and were discharged within hours of surgery. The study shows that full abdominoplasty procedures can be safely performed without systemic complications in an outpatient setting. Based on these data, the ever-present sentiment that abdominoplasty is the plastic surgery procedure associated with the highest rate of venous thromboembolism should be carefully evaluated. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.