panni versus abdominoplasty

My insurance will cover my panni...my surgeon suggest a abdominoplasty..can somebody weigh in on this and what is the approximate cost I can expect to absorb...side note it was suggested by a friend that I should have lipo on my oblique area

I think it really depends on your own body. For me, having only the panni would have obviously removed my large hanging skin that also covered my mons area. I upgraded to the full tummy tuck with muscle repair, lipo of my flanks and lipo/mons repair. 

Worth every penny. I am in Canada and my province has insurance paid by our government called OHIP that approved to cover the cost of my panniculectomy. I upgraded that to the abdominoplasty. Your costs may be very different, but for me, the hospital admin fee was $300 and the surgeon fee was $5000.00. 

Annette 😄

Thank you for your response and aapproximation of cost.  The estimation I was given for my out of pocket was 2600 for the addnl cosmetic stuff and about 3500 for deductible/ co pay...so we are in the same area of cost... I was wondering if my cost would be different if I went with a private run practice versus our local hospital...

My insurance paid for my panni.  I had to pick up the tab for the abdominoplasty, which came to $2800.  It's worth it!!  For the first time in 50 years I have a flat tummy.  Since I'm only 2 weeks out, I don't know what the final ab look will be, but I'm pretty happy so far.  This is not an easy recovery, something I'm sure you've heard already.  But I'm proud of myself for taking this step and I know the recovery time will be over.

Did you ask your surgeon? Costs can vary widely.

Typically, panni does not include muscle repair, pubic lift, liposuction, and other more "finesse" procedures. Pannis can result in elevation of the pubic skin and hairline if the lift is not done, and this is difficult to fix.  Be sure you discuss in detail the differences with your surgeon.

Thank you for this information.  This is exactly the kind of information we need to know. 

I had a breast lift, breast aug, brachioplasty, lbl with mons lipo.  Insurance covered $4,000 for excision of skin of stomach and I paid 26,000 for the rest.

I have seen a pannulectomy that looked great but most look very disfigured and bad. If a surgeon takes pride in his work and goes the extra mile by doing procedures not covered you will get a good result, but a true Pannus removal is exactly that and nothing more. If your mons pubis hangs low, it will be very noticeable after your Pannus is gone. Think about it, ask to see your surgeons work and make certain you're looking at pannulectomy pictures and not tummy tuck pictures.

I see a number of poorly-done pannis, and something else to remember is that they are very hard to revise or improve upon once the skin is gone.  Doing just the front also makes doing the backside later harder, especially if plans were not made to leave the panni scars in the proper location on the hips to allow a good lift and a low scar later.

Pannis have a role, especially in patients just concerned with function, not form, and also in very large patients where simple removal of the panni may take several hours and be an involved procedure in and of itself.