Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon Presents “Mommy Makeover” Study in Turkey

Plastic surgeon Dr. Grant Stevens recently traveled to Istanbul, Turkey to present the findings of his study on the safety of combining breast enhancement with a tummy tuck in Los Angeles.

Marina Del Rey, California (November 2009) – Plastic surgeon Dr. Grant Stevens recently returned from a trip to Istanbul, Turkey where he delivered a keynote speech on the safety and efficacy of combined breast surgery and abdominoplasty (“tummy tuck”) at the 13th Annual Congress of the Turkish Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Dr. Stevens presented the findings of a retrospective review of 268 combined plastic surgery procedures that were performed at his practice, Marina Plastic Surgery Associates, between 1997 and 2007. The study, which was published in the March/April 2009 issue of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, found that combining breast surgery and tummy tuck in Los Angeles – commonly known as a “mommy makeover” – is a safe and effective option.

“Presenting this study to such a prestigious group of international aesthetic surgery professionals was certainly an honor,” says Dr. Stevens, the study’s lead author. “The increasing popularity of combination procedures like the mommy makeover requires research to ensure that they are safe alternatives to undergoing a single procedure.”

All of the cases reviewed were performed at a single outpatient surgery center in Los Angeles. Breast enhancement procedures included in the study were breast augmentation, breast lift, combined augmentation and lift, breast reduction, and implant replacement. Several types of abdominoplasty procedures were also reviewed in the study, including full, lower, mini, and reverse. The complication and revision rates documented in the 268 cases of combined procedures were comparable to published complication and revision rates of standalone procedures.

“What we found, essentially, is that the combined mommy makeover procedure was not significantly more risky for the patient than a standalone procedure would be,” adds Dr. Stevens. “It’s important to note, however, that all of the cases in our study were performed by board-certified Beverly Hills area plastic surgeons at a fully-equipped surgical facility. Additional studies of procedures performed by other surgeons in a variety of settings are needed to reach more conclusive results about the safety and efficacy of the mommy makeover in particular and combined cosmetic surgeries generally.”

Dr. Stevens and his colleagues expect to see the mommy makeover continue to gain popularity among tummy tuck and breast enlargement patients in Los Angeles and across the country.

“More and more patients are requesting mommy makeovers because they are more affordable and they deliver a complete makeover with only one recovery period,” says Dr. Stevens. “Hopefully, presenting our study to the international panel of plastic surgeons that were present in Turkey will spark interest in further research on combination procedures.”