Breast Reduction Surgery and Information

Women with very large, pendulous breasts may experience a variety of medical problems caused by the excessive weight-from back and neck pain and skin irritation to skeletal deformities and breathing problems. Bra straps may leave indentations in their shoulders. And unusually large breasts can make a woman-or a teenage girl-feel extremely self-conscious.

Women with very large, pendulous breasts may experience a variety of medical problems caused by the excessive weight-from back and neck pain and skin irritation to skeletal deformities and breathing problems. Bra straps may leave indentations in their shoulders. And unusually large breasts can make a woman-or a teenage girl-feel extremely self-conscious.

Breast reduction, technically known as reduction mammaplasty, is designed for such women. The procedure removes fat, glandular tissue, and skin from the breasts, making them smaller, lighter, and firmer. It can also reduce the size of the areola, the darker skin surrounding the nipple. The goal is to give the woman smaller, better-shaped breasts in proportion with the rest of her body.

If you’re considering breast reduction, this will give you a basic understanding of the procedure- when it can help, how it’s performed, and what results you can expect. It can’t answer all of your questions, since a lot depends on your individual circumstances. Please be sure to ask your doctor if there is anything about the procedure you don’t understand.

The best candidates for breast reduction

Breast reduction is usually performed for physical relief rather than simply cosmetic improvement. Most women who have the surgery are troubled by very large, sagging breasts that restrict their activities and cause them physical discomfort.

In most cases, breast reduction isn’t performed until a woman’s breasts are fully developed; however, it can be done earlier if large breasts are causing serious physical discomfort. The best candidates are those who are mature enough to fully understand the procedure and have realistic expectations about the results. Breast reduction is not recommended for women who intend to breast-feed.

All surgery carries some uncertainty and risk

Breast reduction is not a simple operation, but it’s normally safe when performed by a qualified plastic surgeon. Nevertheless, as with any surgery, there is always a possibility of complications, including bleeding, infection, or reaction to the anesthesia. Some patients develop small sores around their nipples after surgery; these can be treated with antibiotic creams. You can reduce your risks by closely following your physician’s advice both before and after surgery.

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10 Tips On How to Take Care of Yourself After Breast Cancer Surgery

If you have been recently diagnosed as having breast cancer, your doctor may recommend a full mastectomy or a partial one.

On the other hand, you may already have had a mastectomy or a partial mastectomy and you’re left with a number of questions about how to best take care of yourself at this point. This article will try to answer some of your unanswered questions if you’re facing surgery or have already had it.

To help you organize your questions, it will be beneficial for you to carry around a small notebook on which you can jot your questions as well as the answers your doctor gives you. For example, you need to know what your doctor recommends — should you have a full mastectomy or a partial one? Do you want a second opinion at this point? How long will your hospital stay be? Have your lymph nodes been affected by cancer? How will your body react after one or more lymph nodes has been removed? What is the best method of taking care of your incision? How much scarring is anticipated by your doctor after surgery? Will removing one or more lymph nodes affect the range of motion of your shoulder and arm? Have you considered how you will care for the areas of your body that are effected by surgery after your operation?

It’s often a good idea to have a support group standing behind you at this tough time of your life. Having someone who’s already been through this experience to share what they went through could help you get an idea of what’s going to happen to you as well.

You’ll be wanting to know how long a full recovery will take when you are back on your feet again. After the removal of one or both of your breasts, your sense of balance may be affected. In time your body will adjust to this. However, the services of a physical therapist may help you a lot to regain your former agility. There are special exercises you can do to help remove the stiffness and help you feel better after surgery.

After breast cancer surgery, you will need to take care of yourself and be specially careful about the arm and hand on the side where lymph nodes were removed — if any lymph nodes were found to contain cancer cells.

Following surgery, your arm on the side where your lymph nodes were removed may swell. You need to protect your arm and hand on that side after your operation by paying attention to the following tips:

Tags: Breast, Cancer, Care, Surgery, Tips
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Breast Cancer Surgery Recovery Time

The type of surgery recommended in any given case of breast cancer has significance for postoperative therapy. Breast cancer surgery may be less extensive or radical where the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes or to other parts of the body; the use of chemotherapy and radiation therapy may then be more aggressive. Breast cancer surgery recovery time depends on the procedure involved.

More commonly, the cancer is localized. The patient’s options may, in consequence include: surgery only, surgery with radiation, surgery with chemotherapy, surgery with a combination of these treatments; or radiation or chemotherapy without surgery. However, breast cancer surgery recovery time would differ depending upon the kind of surgery they had.

If the lesion is malignant, the surgeon proceeds with the mastectomy. Depending upon the seriousness of the case and the procedure recommended by the surgeon and the pathologist, the operation may be a simple mastectomy, a radical mastectomy, a modified radical mastectomy, or any of a number of other forms of breast operation.

In the United States, until recently, radical mastectomy was the usual procedure for breast cancer treatment. Today at least seven different types of mastectomy, some more widely accepted than other, may be performed namely: lumpectomy, simple mastectomy, modified-radical mastectomy, halsted-type radical mastectomy, radical mastectomy, super-radical mastectomy. All may be recommended in different cases depending upon the type of cancer, its invasive potential, or ability to spread, and other factors.

Most patients have deep concern about many aspects of breast cancer surgery recovery time, including the cosmetic effects. For that reason, it is important to select the appropriate type of surgery. The rates of survival appear to depend as much on timely use of pre and postoperative radiotherapy and postoperative chemotherapy as on the type of operation. But the kind of operation may determine whether the patient will be able to function and recover normally in a relatively short period of time.

Tags: Breast, Cancer, Surgery
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Breast Surgery for People with Breast Cancer

In this article we will look at the different types of breast surgery that you may be offered if you have breast cancer.

However before any operation takes place the surgeon will talk to you and discuss with you the most appropriate type of surgery for your particular case of breast cancer.

It should also be remembered that no surgery will take place prior to you consenting to it.

Where breast surgery is concerned the type of surgery that will be performed depends on the size of the cancer in your breast, whether it has spread to any other parts of your body and also personal preference.

However, if your cancer has already been diagnosed then your surgeon will talk to you about the type of surgery that you will need. Although there may be times when the surgeon can not make a decision on what type of surgery he carries out as they do not have a definite diagnosis on the type of cancer that you have. Therefore they may need to carry out a small operation to remove some of the lump in order to examine under a microscope before taking the rest out.

The types of breast surgery that you may have are as follows:

1. Mastectomy – Removal of the whole breast.

2. Lumpectomy or Wide Local Excision – Where only the lump is removed from the breast.*

3. Segmentectomy – This where just part of the breast is removed.*

*These second two options are also known as conservative surgery.

In some cases a patient who has had breast surgery for cancer may need to under go radiotherapy afterwards and this is particular true for those who have either a lumpectomy or Segmentectomy surgery. This lowers the risk of that patient having their cancer returning as it will hopefully kill off the rest of cancer cells if any left after the surgery has taken place. Whilst in other cases patients who have had a mastectomy may find that they are having radiotherapy to the lymph nodes above the collar bone to make sure that all cancerous cells have been removed. Normally the surgeon will discuss what kind of treatment you will have with the radiotherapist once the results from the surgery are back. Unfortunately not radiotherapy treatment can be planned until after the operation has been carried out.

Tags: Breast, Cancer, Surgery
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