Many advancements have been made in modern abdominal wall reconstruction procedures regarding efficiency, improved pain control, safety, lesser morbidity, and wound care. Allografts are required in some cases of abdominal wall reconstruction. Preoperative radiographic imaging (CT scan ) is often required to confirm your diagnosis and to establish a treatment plan. An abdominal wall reconstruction is usually performed under general anesthesia and takes between 2-4 hours depending on your case. Depending on the type of abdominal wall reconstruction being performed, JP-drains will be used. The drains are needed until the daily amount of wound fluid has diminished and your body is able to absorb it. An abdominal wall reconstruction procedure can be either performed safely in an ambulatory setting or with one overnight stay in the hospital. Depending on the extent and operative length of your procedure, your general health, and your personal comfort, an overnight stay in the hospital might be preferred to monitor your recovery and to provide adequate pain control. After your abdominal wall reconstruction procedure you will wear a garment for about 6 weeks to support your wound healing process. After your abdominal wall reconstruction procedure you will have some swelling and bruising, which gradually subsides within the following weeks. During that time Dr Knoll and her team will see you regularly in her Frankfurt office to accompany you during the wound healing process. You will be limited in your physical activities during your immediate post-operative period to ensure adequate wound healing.The success of an abdominal wall reconstruction procedure is clearly dependent on the meticulous planning, a patient’s realistic expectations and compliance, and skilled surgical performance of your surgery.
Dr Knoll and her team will be happy to provide you with further information about your abdominal wall reconstruction procedure and answer your questions during your consultation in our office.
Given the different causes requiring an abdominal wall reconstruction procedure, it is quiet difficult to provide any estimated costs of the surgery without having examined and talked to the patient. It is easy to understand that the costs of the surgery will vary depending on the complexity, length of the procedure, hospital stay, and the details involved. Usually there are 3 different costs associated with a surgery; the surgeon’s fee, hospital fee, and anesthesia fee. In some abdominal wall reconstruction cases the procedure might be fully or partially covered by your health insurance. Costs related to revision tummy tuck procedures that are considered to be cosmetic, are not covered by health care insurances.During your office consultation with Dr. Knoll you will be thoroughly examined, allowing us to provide you with information pertaining to surgery, post operative expectations and cost associated with your individual surgery plan. For these reasons a consultation in our Frankfurt office is strongly encouraged. We understand that it can be impractical for some of our out of town / or international patients to travel to Frankfurt for an initial consultation. For this reason, Dr. Knoll offers online consultations. By submitting a series of photographs, information about your desired outcome, and a little about yourself, we can start to determine if you are a good candidate. Though a virtual consultation starts the consultation conversation, it does have it’s limitations and does not replace the need to be seen in person for a traditional consultation to finalize plans for a procedure.
