Patients who travel to Italy for diastasis recti surgery should plan on four to eight nights in Milan, and on flying home about eight to nine days after the operation. Everything that can be done before departure — tests, imaging review, planning — is done before departure, so that no one travels to find out that something was missing.
Key points
- Plan on four to eight nights in Milan.
- Flying home is normally possible about 8–9 days after surgery.
- Pre-operative tests are done in your country and reviewed before any date is confirmed.
- A video consultation defines the plan; some cases still need an in-person exam.
- Documents and discharge letter are provided in English.
- Follow-up continues remotely once you are home.
Before you travel
Treating a patient who lives abroad is not a matter of logistics alone. The difficulty is that the usual sequence — consultation, tests, decision, operation, follow-up — has to be compressed into a single journey, without losing any of its steps. The way this is organised here is simple: the clinical work that does not require presence is completed while the patient is still at home, and the days spent in Italy are used for what genuinely requires being here.
Tests are done where you live, and reviewed before you leave
Pre-operative tests are carried out in your own country, close to home, and sent for review before any date is confirmed. This is deliberate. Tests performed abroad are not always equivalent to the ones required here, and a value that needs repeating, or an examination that was not performed correctly, is a problem that must surface before a flight is booked, not after. No date is confirmed until the tests have been read and found adequate.
A video consultation, and what it can and cannot settle
A remote consultation is arranged before departure. Its purpose is to give a clear indication: what the problem appears to be, which operation it would call for, what the recovery would look like. In straightforward cases this is enough to define the entire plan in advance. In others — a recurrence, a previous abdominal operation, a hernia associated with the diastasis, an abdominal wall that needs to be examined and not described — a clinical examination in person remains mandatory, and the plan is confirmed only after it. Being told this in advance is part of an honest assessment: a video call cannot palpate an abdominal wall.
Language
Correspondence, clinical documentation and the discharge letter are provided in English. When a patient speaks neither Italian nor English, an interpreter is arranged.
The days in Italy
How long to plan for
Four to eight nights, depending on the operation and on how the first days go. The wider range is not vagueness: a repair of a wide diastasis with an associated hernia is not the same undertaking as a limited one, and the number of nights follows the operation rather than a brochure.
Where the operation takes place
For patients coming from abroad, the operation is performed in a private clinic in Milan, Italy.
Accommodation and movements
Where to stay is suggested, and, if you prefer, booked for you: accommodation, transfers, timing of the appointments. The intention is that the stay requires no organisational effort on your part, because attention is better spent elsewhere in those days.
Flying home
Flying is normally possible about eight to nine days after the operation. There is no difference between a short flight and an intercontinental one: what matters is not the duration of the flight but the time elapsed since the repair, and the ability to move and stand up during the journey. The return date is confirmed at the check-up performed before departure, not fixed in advance from a calendar.
After you are home
Follow-up continues remotely: scheduled contacts, photographs and, when needed, video calls, on the same intervals a patient living in Milan would follow. The discharge letter is written so that a physician in your own country can read it and know exactly what was done, with what materials, and what to expect over the following months. Should something need to be examined in person, this is said plainly rather than managed from a distance. See more on recovery after surgery.
What is not included
Honesty here is more useful than a longer list. The following are not arranged:
- flights and travel insurance;
- visas and immigration documents;
- treatment of conditions unrelated to the abdominal wall;
- any promise about a result. What can be expected of a repair is discussed on the basis of your own examination and imaging, not of an average.
There are no fixed exclusions. Particular circumstances — a demanding medical history, a stay that cannot be extended, travelling without a companion — are discussed and dealt with case by case, which is the only sensible way to handle them.
How to start
Write from the contact page of Dr. Fiori's main site, describing your situation in a few lines and attaching any imaging or reports you already have. The first reply will tell you what is needed before a video consultation can be useful. You may also want to read about the surgical options first.
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Reviewed by Federico Fiori, MD · Updated 2026-08
Frequently asked questions
- How many nights should I plan to stay in Italy?
- Between four and eight, depending on the operation performed and on the first days of recovery. The number of nights is confirmed once the surgical plan is defined, not estimated in advance.
- When can I fly home after diastasis recti surgery?
- Normally about eight to nine days after the operation. There is no distinction between short and long-haul flights: what counts is the time elapsed since the repair, not the length of the journey. The date is confirmed at the check-up carried out before departure.
- Do I need to travel twice — once for the consultation and once for the operation?
- Not always. In straightforward cases the plan can be defined entirely before departure, through a video consultation and the review of tests and imaging carried out where you live. In more complex situations — a recurrence, previous abdominal surgery, an associated hernia — an examination in person is required before the operation is confirmed.
- Where are the pre-operative tests carried out?
- In your own country. They are sent for review before any date is confirmed, so that an inadequate or missing examination is discovered before you book a flight rather than after you arrive.
- Will I be able to understand my documents at home?
- Clinical documentation and the discharge letter are provided in English, written so that a physician in your own country can read exactly what was done and what to expect. An interpreter is arranged when needed.
- Is accommodation arranged?
- Suggestions are given and, if you prefer, accommodation and transfers are booked for you. Flights and travel insurance are not.
- Who follows me once I am back home?
- Follow-up continues remotely, on the same intervals as for a patient living in Milan: scheduled contacts, photographs and video calls when useful. If something needs to be examined in person, you will be told so directly.
Frequently asked questions