How Long Does It Take To Heal From Breast Reduction
Breast reduction, also known as reduction mammaplasty, is a medical operation that changes the size and appearance of a women’s breasts. Some people have larger breasts than others, which can have an effect on their lifestyle – for example, when doing certain exercises or participating in sports activities.
Breast reduction surgery is a procedure that removes excess breast tissue and skin to create smaller, lighter breasts. It can help alleviate back pain and improve self-esteem and body image. The procedure can also reduce the risk of certain breast cancer types.
Breast reduction surgery helps people with larger breast sizes achieve smaller cup sizes. Although the exam, mammogram and consultation is straightforward, the recovery from the surgery is not. Anyone who knows about breasts and breast reduction knows that it is pretty difficult for women to adjust after the process.read more on Common Problems After Breast Reduction Surgery/breast reduction recovery tips.
Here at [company name], we know that the most common problems after breast reduction surgery are soreness and swelling, as well as pain. The good news is that these symptoms go away very quickly.
In fact, you can expect to feel better within a week of your surgery. Swelling will go down within two weeks and your muscles should be back to normal by six weeks.
There are a few common problems that women can experience after breast reduction surgery.
The first is the most obvious: pain. The operation itself is painful and you will be sore afterward, but that should go away in a few days. If the pain continues, talk to your doctor about it.
The second is swelling. Your body will naturally swell and retain fluid after any surgery, but if you have significant swelling after breast reduction surgery, contact your doctor as soon as possible because this could indicate post-operative bleeding or infection.
The most common problems after breast reduction surgery are swelling and numbness.
Breast reduction surgery can be performed under a general or local anesthesia.
You may experience some slight bleeding from inside your breast tissue within 24 hours after surgery.
Your surgeon will remove excess skin surrounding each breast or implant and remove fat deposits beneath your breasts (liposuction). The chest wall muscles are then tightened so that they support the new shape of your breasts. In order to reshape the nipple area, excess skin is removed from around it, resulting in two round scars that look like small dots on each side of your nipple area when healed completely (see image below).
The following are common problems that can occur after breast reduction surgery:
- Infection or wound healing problems
- Breast pain
- Nipple sensation problems
- Loss of nipple/areola skin darkening (pigmentation) and/or loss of nipple/areola skin elasticity
- Areola keloid formation (hardened scar tissue)
- Painful scarring of the nipples, breast fold or surrounding chest wall areas (fibrosis)
Common Problems After Breast Reduction Surgery
Some tenderness and soreness at the surgical site are common and should be expected.
If you slice your finger with a potato peeler, it’s tender for a few days. If you get stitches on your head after running into a post, it throbs for a few days. Even a paper cut makes itself known days after being delivered.
But there is a difference between typical tenderness and tenderness that’s a sign of infection, explains Sean Satey, MD, a plastic surgeon based in Beverly Hills, California.
“Infection after breast reduction surgery is fortunately very rare and occurs less than 1% of the time,” he said.
But when tenderness is combined with redness, discharge, fever, vomiting, or chills, you could have an infection and should get the area looked at by a healthcare professional.
“It’s a myth that people will lose the ability to breastfeed following breast reduction surgery,” explained Jonathan Kaplan, MD, a plastic surgeon with Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery in San Francisco.
Most people will still be able to breastfeed because the milk duct isn’t removed, adds Kaplan.
You may be more likely to lose the ability to breastfeed or chestfeed if your nipple and areola are removed during surgery.
So, if breastfeeding or chestfeeding is important to you, talk with your surgeon about which technique will give you the aesthetic you want and preserve your ability to produce milk in the future.
Nipple necrosis, also known as necrosis of the nipple-areolar complex, is a very rareTrusted Source complication of breast reduction surgery.
Put simply, it’s the death of a nipple.
Typically, it happens when the blood supply isn’t successfully reattached to the nipple after the breast was moved or reshaped during surgery.
Without nutrient-rich blood being pumped to the sensitive tissue, it’s unable to heal properly and subsequently dies.
This can also happen if there isn’t enough blood leaving the nipple, as it can cause blood to get trapped in the tissue.
The main sign of nipple necrosis? An unexpected color change.
If your nipple is paler than expected, there may not be enough blood flow into the nipple. If your nipple is purple or darker than expected, there may not be enough blood flow out of the nipple.
Breast Reduction Recovery Tips
Breast reduction surgery is carried out under general anaesthetic. This means you’ll be asleep during the operation.
Generally, the operation involves:
- moving your nipple to its new position – usually while it’s still attached to the blood supply
- removing excess fat, glandular tissue and skin from your breasts
- reshaping the remaining breast tissue
The operation takes 2 to 3 hours, depending on the extent of the breast reduction.
You’ll usually need to stay in hospital for 1 or 2 nights.
Afterwards
When you wake up after surgery, you’ll have dressings on your breasts and plastic tubes may be attached to them to drain blood away.
After 1 to 2 days, the tubes will be removed and you’ll usually be able to go home.
You may have some pain for a few days, which can be relieved with painkillers.
It’s likely your breasts will be swollen, and may feel tender and lumpy after surgery. The swelling may last for around 3 months.
You will not see what your breasts look like until the swelling has gone down.
Recovery
It can take 2 to 6 weeks to fully recover from breast reduction surgery.
You should not drive until it’s no longer painful to wear a seatbelt. This may be several weeks.
Avoid stretching, strenuous exercise and heavy lifting for up to 6 weeks after the operation.
Some surgeons suggest wearing a sports bra 24 hours a day for up to 3 months after breast surgery. Check with your surgeon.
The length of time you need to keep the dressings on depends on how quickly your wounds heal.
Stitches will need to be removed after a week or 2, unless they’re dissolvable.
Scars
You’ll probably have scars around your nipples.
You may also have a vertical scar running down your breast and a horizontal scar across the crease, below the breast (anchor-shaped).
Or you may only have a vertical scar running down your breast.
Scars are usually red for the first 6 weeks, but most fade over time and should be invisible under normal clothes, bras and bikini tops.
Breast reduction surgery can sometimes result in problems, including:
- thick, obvious scarring
- unevenly shaped breasts or nipples
- wound healing problems
- loss of nipple sensation
- being permanently unable to breastfeed
- red or lumpy breasts if the fat dies (fat necrosis)
- excess skin left around the scars, which may need to be surgically removed
- bleeding inside the breast tissue (haematoma) – this generally happens within the first 24 hours after the operation
Also, any type of operation carries a small risk of:
- excessive bleeding
- infection
- an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic
- a blood clot forming in the deep veins