Seroma after tissue expander reconstruction after mastectomy

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Hi - roughly 5 weeks ago I had a left sided mastectomy with ALN clearance. I had a temporary expander fitted and was very pleased with the initial results. All was healing well and then as I hit week 4 my left breast (operated side with expander) swelled right up and now looks like a very nice breast! However, it shouldn’t!!! I have no expansions done yet.
I have been in touch with my team who are monitoring and I’ve had antibiotics as I was showing early signs of infection. I have now been referred for an ultrasound to confirm if it is fluid or blood that has caused the swelling. My surgeon is pretty confident that it is fluid.

He appeared to indicate that this was quite unusual. Has anyone had this happen and if so how was it treated?
Many thanks in advance for any responses x

GRANNY59 29 days ago

Hi Pepper79 welcome to the forum. I didn't have a Mastectomy but did have infection I my affected breast and a humongous seroma deep in my breast which dispersed itself..I'm wondering why they didn't fit you with a drain for a few days after surgery as there is often a build up of fluid from the operation.if it is seroma (blood clot) then it will hopefully disperse itself but if it is fluid it may need drained by the team for you..I assume that they can do that without interrupting the expander ? Hope you manage to get this resolved and it settles down. Best wishes Gail x

Pepper79 29 days ago in reply to GRANNY59

Hi Gail, thank you for your reply, I did have 3 drains which came out gradually over 2.5 weeks. Was fine at first and then boom it appeared. I wonder if I started doing too much. Draining has been discussed but they don’t like to when an expander is in due to risk of rupture and introducing infection.
x

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