Breast Lift Risks & Complications

All elective surgeries come with some level of risk. While every step will be taken to ensure your surgery is performed correctly within safe environments, complications can still arise from things such as anesthesia, infection, and allergic reactions. How often do complications happen? Not often. Still, it is important that you understand the risks so that you can make the best decision for yourself.

Below we have listed general complications that can happen from any surgery, as well as a set of risks associated specifically with breast lift procedures. Click on the complication name to get more information. You will receive more detailed information during your consultation, but if you have any questions you are welcome to ask us as well.

What is Normal?

First of all, before we begin discussing risks or complications, we will tell you normal aftereffects during recovery from breast lift in Miami. It is normal to experience:

• Swelling and bruising
• Mild to moderate discomfort or pain
• Crusting along the incision lines
• Numbness that dissipates in two to three months
• Itching or "electrical sensations" as nerves heal
• Redness of scars

About Scars

Scars are fascinating things. You will see the biggest changes to scars in the first three months. Scars initially appear red, deep pink or purple and the color will drastically improve in the first 12 weeks. However, scars can take up to two years to heal completely. So you can expect your scar to improve, improve, improve and improve long after your breasts themselves have healed.

Most Miami and Fort Lauderdale breast lifts performed at the South Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery result in a partial scar on the nipple or a "lollipop scar" that goes around the nipple and then vertically down from the bottom of the nipple to the breast crease.

General Risks

All surgeries come with a small chance of risk and complication. Here is a list of general and more rare complications.

• Hematoma
• Inflammation and Infection
• Thick, wide, or depressed scars
• Wound separation or delayed healing
• Sensitivity or allergy to dressings or tape
• Injury to deeper sutures

Rare complications include pulmonary embolism, severe allergic reactions to medications, and heart problems such as cardiac arrhythmias or heart attack. It is important that you share your entire medical history with your doctor before surgery to help minimize risks.

Specific Risks and Complications Associated with Breast Lift Surgery

• Asymmetry
• "Bottoming out"
• Inability to breastfeed
• Areas of hardness within breasts
• Skin necrosis
• Loss of nipple sensation

Smoking

Smoking can hinder your body's ability to heal or go through surgery successfully. Smoking limits the oxygen available to your body - and your body needs oxygen to get through surgery as well as to heal properly after surgery. Smokers also have a greater chance of skin loss and poor healing due to decreased skin circulation. Do yourself a favor: quit smoking a month before your surgery and do not smoke for a minimum of ten days after your surgery. Even better, kick the habit for good.

Unsatisfactory results or need for surgical revisions

All plastic surgery treatments and operations are performed to improve a condition, a problem or an appearance. While the procedures are performed with a very high probability of success, disappointments occur and results are not always acceptable to patients or the surgeon, requiring a secondary procedure. Rarely, problems may occur which are permanent.

Short descriptions of possible complications

Hematoma: Small collections of blood under the skin. Typically absorbed spontaneously by the body. Larger hematomas may require aspiration, drainage, or even surgical removal to achieve best results.

Inflammation and Infection: A superficial infection may only require antibiotics. Development of an abscess can require drainage. Infection can affect the body's ability to heal properly.

Thick, wide, or depressed scars: Some areas of the body scar more easily than others. Scarring can also depend on an individual's genetic makeup. Unsightly scars can often be revised surgically.

Wound separation or delayed healing: Any incision, during the healing phase, may separate or heal unusually slow for a number of reasons. If delayed healing occurs the final outcome is not usually affected, but may require secondary revision surgery.

Sensitivity or allergy to dressings or tape: Most allergies are mild, but in extremely rare circumstances allergic reactions can be severe and require aggressive treatment or even hospitalization.

Injury to deeper sutures: Blood vessels, nerves and muscles may be injured during surgery, though this occurrence is very rare.

Loss of nipple sensation: Nerves that supply skin or nipple sensation may be cut or damaged while the pocket of space for the implant is being created. Although this does not happen routinely, it can happen no matter how carefully the surgery is performed. If sensory loss occurs, the nerves slowly recover over a period of one to two years in about 85% of the cases.

Asymmetry: Sometimes breasts will heal differently from each other, creating a slight asymmetry. In some cases, nipple placement may be somewhat different.

Bottoming Out: As the breasts heal, the skin on the lower part of the breast may begin to "stretch out." When this happens, the shape of the breast may change as the breast tissue settles below the nipple, making the nipple point upward. This is a rare occurrence and can be repaired with minor further surgery.

Inability to breastfeed: Most Breast Lifts require an incision on part or around the entire nipple. Great care is taken to preserve milk ducts, which cannot repair themselves once severed. Surgeries that require a temporary removal of the nipple do sever the milk ducts, removing the possibility of further breastfeeding.

Areas of hardness within breasts: Postoperative scarring can happen within the breast tissue, causing areas of hardness within the breasts. These can mimic "lumps" associated with cancer even though they are not cancer related. These could require mammography or biopsy.

Skin necrosis: This is an extremely rare complication that typically develops from an infection and causes the death of the involved tissues. It usually only involves a very small area that will eventually heal with good wound care. Smoking pre- and post-surgery can cause skin necrosis.