Breast Surgery Recovery Advice

From Dr. Loftus

There are a number of things that Dr. Loftus recommends to reduce pain, swelling, and nausea and speed your breast surgery recovery.

Reducing Pain and Swelling:

Breast implant placement under the muscle can either be somewhat painful with an unpleasant breast surgery recovery period, or it can be relatively pain-free with a much faster recovery. Dr. Loftus recommends some very important steps to increase the likelihood of less discomfort and fast recovery.

• After general anesthesia is administered, Dr. Loftus recommends injecting long-lasting numbing medicine (similar to Novocain, but much longer lasting) on all sides of each breast.
• Before closing your skin, Dr. Loftus recommends placing a large dose of the same numbing medicine directly into the area where the implant is sitting. This "blocks" the nerves from sending pain signals to your brain after surgery. Dr. Loftus has also found that this reduces swelling. For a variety of reasons, the body is slow in absorbing the numbing medicine around the implant, and it therefore can last for many hours.
  
  It has been shown in multiple medical studies that reducing the initial pain after surgery markedly reduces overall pain and speeds recovery, and Dr. Loftus has found this to be the case for those in whom she operates. Note that some plastic surgeons advocate placing a pump in the surgical site to infuse numbing medicine for a few days following surgery. Although this is sometimes helpful, it has not been shown to be more effective than placing a large single dose into the pocket at the time of surgery.
• You likely will be given a prescription for a narcotic pain medication such as Percocet or Demerol. You should also ask about the option of also receiving celebrex, a non-narcotic pain medication and flexeril, a muscle relaxant. Working together, they can be very effective in combating pain and discomfort.
• Additional measures to help reduce discomfort include avoiding pectoral exercises (bench press, fly, and push-ups) from one month prior to surgery to two months afterward. This also helps minimize swelling.

Reducing Nausea:

One of the most common causes of nausea is pain. Dr. Loftus has found that taking steps to reduce pain has markedly reduced the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting, even in those who are prone to it. Ask your doctor about prophylactic anti-nausea medications like metoclopramide, ondansetron, phenergan, scopalamine patches, and Emend.

Dr. Loftus administers the following to her patients: decadron (an intravenous steroid which reduces nausea), Zofran (an anti-nausea medication that is so effective that it is routinely prescribed for cancer patients), Scopalamine (a medication which helps motion sickness), and Pepcid AC (this over-the-counter medication is a fabulous drug which further inhibits nausea in surgical patients). These will help with the breast surgery recovery process. In those who are particularly prone to nausea after surgery, Dr. Loftus recommends metocloprmide, phenergan, and emend.

Why so many drugs? Because there are multiple potential causes of nausea following surgery, and each drug targets a different cause. If you are nauseated, it will not be evident which cause is involved. Nor will it be evident which drug will make you feel better. Dr. Loftus has found that, by optimizing anti-nausea medications, she has been able to reduce post-operative nausea to less than 2%.

Summary

Your recovery from breast augmentation can be relatively fast and mostly pain-free if you and your plastic surgeon take advantage of the suggestions above.