Seroma - top tips?

Hi Kate. You have had no reply yet. Can I offer advice from my experience as a vet? If it is just a seroma it will go down in time - perhaps not totally but mostly. It could be drained if it very painful or in a difficult place, but draining comes with the risk of infection. As much gentle movement as you can will help blood and lymphatic circulation to the area and aid dispersion of the fluid.So try gentle movement and local massage towards your trunk. If it is in your leg keeping the part with the seroma elevated a few times a day might help.

Why is it there? The body doesn't like spaces so fills them with serum. The serous fluid gradually clots just like a blood clot, and as healing progresses the clot shrinks and is eventuall dispersed.

You might be left with a little thickening of tissue at the end but nothing likely to be worrying. give it time. You are absolutely right that signs of infection are redness, heat swelling and pain. Some or all of those then contact your medical team. Hope that helps. 

Thank you so much Siegfried. That is really helpful and reassuring advice. Xx

Hi Kate, 

As Siegfried explained it very well, it is a normal healing process for the body area that has been stressed.

I had seroma on my SLNB site and my consultant said the same things on my follow up, it'll take up to 3 months for it to go back to normal. Told me to gently moisturise the scar of the SLNB and massage it slowly around the area after the stitches are removed. I was told to keep my feet elevated during the first week at all times and as much as I can for the 2nd week, I think this advise was mostly to do with preventing lymphadema. Not to do excessive exercise for 6 weeks and than to start gently. 

Keep an eye for infection signs but otherwise try not to worry too much. I am now 3 months after surgery and it has almost disappeared. 

Thanks Elmyra. xx