What this site is for
This is patient education about a separation of the abdominal muscles, published by Chongqing West District Hospital, a tertiary general hospital in Jiulongpo District, Chongqing. It is a concern guide rather than a procedure page: it answers why this is happening, whether it needs treatment, and which of several paths applies. The operations and the anatomy they work on are explained on the Body hub and on Dr. Mao’s own site, and repeating them here would help nobody.
The distinction the site is built on
A gap between the rectus muscles is muscle and connective tissue. Fat sits in front of the muscle and skin drapes over both. Almost everyone with a midline bulge reads the three as one problem, and they are treated in ways that have nothing in common. Naming the right one is most of the decision, and treating the wrong one is the harm this site exists to prevent.
What it deliberately does not do
It does not name products or brands, quote prices or dosages, or promise a result. It does not present a device, a garment or a cream as a way of closing a separation, because none of them changes the connective tissue. It does not describe surgical technique, and it does not give a named exercise protocol: a programme is prescribed for one person’s wall and reviewed against it, which is not something a website can do.
The limits of a website
Nothing here can tell you how wide your own gap is, whether the band between the muscles is still substantial, or whether a lump in the midline is a hernia. Those answers come from someone feeling the wall at rest and under load, which takes minutes in person and cannot be taken from a photograph. Use this site to arrive at an assessment with better questions, and treat any answer you receive here as general information rather than as advice about you.