Your team

Meet the Diastasis Recti Team

This site is led and medically reviewed by Tongchun Mao, MD, who performs abdominal wall surgery and body contouring here and who is responsible for the medical content. The other three physicians contribute what an assessment of the abdominal wall often needs: the center’s surgical standards and its experience of revision, the assessment of the skin over the abdomen and of the stretch marks on it, and the dermatologic treatment of a fold that is inflamed or infected before any plan is made.

Specialist profiles

Who reviews this content

Tongchun Mao (毛彤春)

Deputy Director & Head of Aesthetic Surgery · Vice Chief Physician, Licensed Aesthetic Attending · Lead Physician of This Site

Abdominal wall assessment · separation, hernia and the layers over it · body contouring

Dr. Tongchun Mao is an aesthetic surgeon at Chongqing West District Hospital, where he is Deputy Director and Head of Aesthetic Surgery in its Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center and the responsible physician for this site. He personally performs more than 700 operations a year, within hospital standards of assessment, anaesthesia and follow-up.

On this site his part is the examination that separates a gap from the things that only look like one. He measures the midline at and above the navel at rest and on a head lift, judges how substantial the band feels, and examines the fat and the skin in front of it as separate findings, because a bulge that is mostly fat is not changed by closing a gap. Where the wall is not the problem he says so, and where the answer is a supervised programme over months rather than an operation he says that too, including to patients who arrived expecting to be booked.

Clinical focus

Examination of the midline at rest and under load
Telling a separation apart from a hernia and from fat or skin
Deciding when a repair is justified and when it is not
Abdominal wall repair with removal of excess skin where both apply
Correction of a previous abdominal operation that has left a problem

Closing a gap is not rebuilding a wall

A repair brings the two rectus muscles back towards the midline and usually removes the skin that was stretched over them. It does not restore the strength of the wall, and it does not stop a further pregnancy from widening the midline again. Patients who understand that before the operation are the ones who are least disappointed after it.

Shaoliang Wang (王韶亮)

Director, Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center · Vice Chief Physician, Associate Professor, Doctor of Medicine

Center leadership · surgical standards and complex revision

Dr. Shaoliang Wang is Director of the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team he provides the surgical perspective and the tertiary-hospital backstop — the assessment when an operation is the honest answer, and the hospital-level care for the rare complication that needs it.

Within this site his part is the standard any operation has to meet and the backstop behind it, including the assessment of an abdominal wall that has been operated on before and has not settled.

Clinical focus

Center leadership and multidisciplinary case review
Surgical assessment when an operation is the honest answer to descent or excess skin
Hospital-based care for the rare complication that needs theatre-level management

Ke He (何锞)

Deputy Director & Head of Skin & Laser Aesthetics · Attending Physician, Licensed Aesthetic Attending

Skin and laser aesthetics · the skin over the abdominal wall

Dr. Ke He is Deputy Director and head of skin and laser aesthetics within the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team her role is the device and injectable assessment, and the honest referral when a problem needs an operation rather than a needle.

Within this site her part is the layer in front of the muscle: the quality of the skin over the abdomen, the stretch marks that show where it was stretched, and the skin problems in a fold that have to be treated before any operation is planned.

Clinical focus

Device and injectable assessment before any treatment plan
Staged planning judged against standardised photographs
Honest referral when a problem needs an operation rather than a needle

Yongbo Jia (贾勇波)

Deputy Director & Head of Dermatology · Vice Chief Physician, Licensed Aesthetic Attending

Dermatology · skin problems in the abdominal fold

Dr. Yongbo Jia is a dermatologist within the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital. Within the team his role is medical skin assessment — diagnosing and managing pigment and barrier conditions, and treating skin that a device or an injection has irritated.

Within this site his part is the skin condition rather than the shape: the rashes, maceration and infections that are common in an abdominal fold and that need treating in their own right before anything else is decided.

Clinical focus

Medical skin assessment behind injectable treatment plans
Diagnosis and management of pigment and barrier conditions
Dermatologic care of skin after irritation or a delayed reaction

Start with an assessment, not a decision

Arrange an assessment. We will examine the midline at rest and under load, say whether the gap explains the bulge you see, and set out what each option can and cannot change.

Contact the Team