Aesthetic and Functional Abdominal Wall Reconstruction After Multiple Bowel Perforations Secondary to Liposuction

Abstract

This report describes a case of aesthetic and functional abdominal wall reconstruction performed to salvage a deformed, scarred, and herniated anterior abdomen after severe peritonitis and partial rectus muscle necrosis secondary to multiple bowel perforations sustained during liposuction performed in a cosmetic clinic. The diagnosis of intestinal perforation was missed intraoperatively and in the immediate postoperative period. The patient was admitted 4 days after the surgery to the intensive therapy unit in septicemic shock. After resuscitation and stabilization, she was treated by debridement of the abdominal wall, bowel resection, and temporary jejunostomy and colostomy (reversed 10 months later). She was referred 18 months after liposuction to the Plastic Surgery Service with a large central midline abdominal incisional hernia presenting with thinned out skin (14 × 11 cm) overlying adherent bowel. A components separation technique was successfully used to reconstruct the abdominal wall, with no recurrent herniation 2 years later. Survivors of bowel perforations sustained during abdominal liposuction may later present with challenging aesthetic and functional problems, as described in this report. These long-term sequelae have not been addressed hitherto in the literature.