Has anyone had a mastectomy without a drain? How was it?

Hi Cloudier

I had a mastectomy without a drain and it was fine. There was a tiny amount of swelling but it went away on its own after about a month. I was actually very pleased to have avoided a drain.

V

Thank you for your positive feedback. X

Hi Cloudier,

I had a mastectomy in August without a drain. I did have  substantial a seroma  build up which was drained twice. All swelling settled after about 8 weeks. Even with a drain there’s a chance of fluid build up (as you experienced). Wishing you all the best x

I had a mastectomy in December 2021, and my local hospital doesn’t use drains as they consider them to be an infection risk.  I was fine afterwards, and thankful not to have the hassle of drains.  In January 2022 I had axillary lymphatic clearance surgery and, once again, had no drains.  I did get seroma, which didn’t bother me.  It sounded like a hot water bottle (I thought it was hilarious), but this re-absorbed after a while.

I had a mastectomy last march with no drain even though I was given all the prep for one so I wondered where it was when I woke up! I was glad to not have it, I did have swelling for a while, I had it drained once but they said it often fills back up anyway (which it did) so chose to leave it to do its thing. It actually took many months to be completely flat

Thank you all. Well the deed has been done - I had surgery last Wednesday, and didn’t have a drain this time. There is some swelling and fluid, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I had nothing at all done to the armpit this time, so I’m hoping it will drain away naturally. But the most noticeable early difference between the two operations is the bruising. Last time (with a drain) I didn’t have a mark on me. Now, there is a lot of bruising, although it appears to be starting to change colour now.