An Etching to Remember – Abdominal Etching

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Are you wondering if abdominal etching is the same as abdinoplasty? Well, both are different procedures. In an abdominoplasty, the abdomen muscles can be tightened or removed, whereas abdominal etching only removes excess fat and skin.

The best candidate for this plastic surgery has naturally athletic-looking underlying muscles that can be accentuated with abdominal etching. People who are liposuction candidates, with localized, exercise-resistant fat deposits, can obtain additional improvements through abdominal etching. Likewise, patients who undergo an abdominoplasty to reduce loosened and excessive muscles may achieve a more athletic-looking appearance with abdominal etching.

Abdominal etching is performed in the doctor's office or in an outpatient surgery center and takes about an hour to be carried out. The procedure is often performed under local "twilight" anesthesia, while you are sleepy, sedated, and awake; or general anesthesia, while you are asleep.

Several small incisions (1-2 millimeters in length) are made in the belly button or in natural creases of the abdomen so that the incisions are not highly visible. The surgeon uses a cannula (a hollow tube-like instrument) to remove excess fat and skin. It is a delicate procedure that includes sculpting grooves in the fat layers to emphasize a muscular appearance. A different cannula may be used to perform liposuction and to perform the muscle-definition sculpting.

Most patients return home within hours after surgery. Results can vary among patients due to personal anatomy factors such as the unchangeable appearance of the underlying muscles.