Complications that can occur while having Breast Enhancement Surgery
Operations or treatments that are not covered by public healthcare and performed by private health care providers should primarily be handled by the patient. In some cases, however, practical reasons may cause patients who are privately operated to remain relevant in public health care. In these cases, it is always important that the attending physician in public care contact the private health care provider to inform of any complications, and also, if possible, transfer the patient to the private health care provider for continued care.
EARLY COMPLICATIONS
infections
All surgical procedures involve the risk of infection. In cosmetic implant surgery this can be serious and therefore must be treated urgently, but also for patients who have undergone aesthetic breast surgery without implants, infections should be taken seriously. You should also grow on suspicion of infection even if you do not intend to treat. Before any antibiotics are used, culture should always be taken before the first dose.
All wounds are colonized even if there is no active infection. Handle the wound as follows:
- Remove any tape so that the wound is aerated.
- Tape that sits over incisions that are under healing without wounds should usually be left.
- Take seed culture after cleaning.
- Local treatment with wound washing (alcohol wax) 1-2 times a day and changeover with ointment compress and dry sterile compress which is changed during conversion.
- In implant surgery, antibiotic therapy should be considered even in small ulcers, and usually begin with flucloxacillin 1g x 3 for 7-10 days (in case of allergy, clindamycin 300mg x 3 for 7-10 days or erythromycin 250mg 2x2 for 7-10 days).
- Change therapy according to resistance pattern when cultivation response exists.
- Low-virulent infections with skin flora (eg coagulase-negative staphylococci) should also be considered in implant surgery as they jeopardize the implant if they go deep.
- It is important to inform the patient about contact with therapy failure or rapid deterioration.
Deep infection
Small wounds that are prolonged and respond poorly to local or systemic treatment in breast enhancement surgery should cause suspicion of deep infection with low virulent pathogens. If implants are exposed without soft cover, there is always colonization with skin pathogens and should be considered a deep infection even in the absence of systemic or other local signs of infection.
Major postoperative bleeding usually occurs within 1-2 days, and the frequency decreases with time after surgery. In some cases, evacuation of the hematoma may be necessary. It can sometimes be difficult to distinguish a delimited and drainable hematoma from general swelling and buildup during a small bleeding, and in these cases ultrasound examination can help the diagnosis.
If you can verify a clearly delineated hematoma within 1-2 days of surgery, it may be of value to drain it. Often it is not enough to try to aspirate percutaneously because the clot is formed quickly, but you need to open parts of the incisions to evacuate the clot. It is important to do this under strictly sterile conditions, which is especially true in implant surgery.