ACOG: Abdominoplasty plus hysterectomy deemed safe

(HealthDay) -- Data from a case series of 65 patients indicate that combining abdominoplasty and hysterectomy is safe and effective, according to a study presented at the annual clinical meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, held from May 5 to 9 in San Diego.

Emery M. Salom, M.D., from the Florida International University in Hieleah, and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of 65 patients (mean age, 46 years; average body mass index, 31.9 kg/m²) who underwent combined abdominoplasty and hysterectomy between 1995 and 2011. Surgical time, length of hospital stay, and complications (wound infections and intraoperative and long-term complications) were assessed.

The researchers found that the average time of surgery was 210 minutes and the average length of hospital stay was 3.8 days for the case series. There was a 32 percent overall complication rate, which included transfusion (3 percent), fever (10 percent), urinary tract infection (2 percent), atelectasis (9 percent), and wound complications (8 percent). There were no reports of major complications.

"In this the largest case series to date, the results suggest that combined abdominoplasty and hysterectomy is a safe [and] effective way to help patients attain both cosmetic and medically important outcomes in the same surgical procedure," the authors write.

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