Breast Implant Removal Q&A

87%

WORTH IT RATING

150 Reviews

Ask a Question

Breast Implant Removalbefore & after photos

View Before and Afters

Average Breast Implant Removal Cost: $3,850

Learn about Breast Implant Removal

776 people and 317 doctors are talking about Breast Implant Removal

Get Free Email Updates

Numbness After Breast Implant Exchange

asked 3 years ago by Sgrizzard in Springfield Missouri
Latest answer by Amy K. Alderman, M.D., M.P.H.
Question viewed 2,012 times
Tags: breasts

I had my breast implants exchanged (and 4th degree contraction scars removed) 6 weeks ago and I have total numbness over 75-80% of both breasts. The new implants are 325 cc silicone and are larger than the original. My first surgery was 31 years ago.

What is causing this numbness and is there anything that I can do to enhance recovery of the nerves? If the feeling does not return, is there anything that can be done?

19 answers to Numbness After Breast Implant Exchange

Give it some time

Numbness is common after surgery. Give yourself some time to recover, 6 weeks may feel like a long time but I would say give yourself about 6 months before concluding that there is nerve damage. Talk with your plastic surgeon about your recovery process and if you have concerns about feeling, bring them up at your follow up appointments.

Amy K. Alderman, M.D., M.P.H.
Alpharetta Plastic Surgeon

Numbness after capsulectomy and breast implant replacement is almost always temporary.

The nerves to your breast get stretched during capsulectomy and implant replacement. They are not severed so sensibility should return with time. It may take as long as 6 months so be patient.

Vincent N. Zubowicz, MD
Atlanta Plastic Surgeon

Feeling and numbness after breast surgery

Capsulectomy is a procedure wherein the entire capsule is removed from the breast. It does not seem like you had a simple implant exchange. Depending on the severity of your condition and whether or not the nerves where encountered during the capsule removal, it may take up to 6 months to determine whether you will regain sensation.

Raffy Karamanoukian, MD
Los Angeles Plastic Surgeon

Numbness after breast implant exchange may or may not be permanent

The surgery you had is quite tricky--to remove the capsule, yet preserve enough tissue to support the nipple complex can be very difficult. The nerves that feed the breast skin aren't big enough for us to see as we are working, so they are definitely sacrificed to some degree when you have the type of surgery you had. There is nothing to do for the numbness except to give it time--it can take 18-24 months for nerves to heal themselves. If you have ANY feeling at all... more

Carmen Kavali, MD
Atlanta Plastic Surgeon

Breast numbness following Implant exchange

The nerves which provide sensation to the breasts travel along the chest wall then up through the breast tissue to the overlying skin. If you had implants on top of the muscle, it is entirely possible that the nerves were close to the contracture scars and may have been removed when the scars were removed. If that was the case, it is unlikely that all the sensation will return. However, there is plenty of cross-over among the sensory nerves and often times some degree of sensation... more

David Bogue, MD
Boca Raton Plastic Surgeon

www.drbogue.com

Numbness is quite common

The scar tissue around your implant can involve the nerves as well. When treating your problem, the removal of the scar may involve the nerves as well. If that is the case, then complete recovery is unlikely. More likely is that the trauma and pulling made the numbeness a temprorary problem. Give it time, especially since there is no foloow-up treatment.

Robert M. Freund, MD
New York Plastic Surgeon

Numbness after breast implant exchange

After a surgery to remove thickened breast capsules causing grade IV contraction, it is possible that your surgeon may have bruised or cut one of the nerves that arises from between the ribs and travels through the breast tissue on its way towards the areola. If this nerve is only bruised, it will repair itself and you will notice a return to sensation.

B. Pat Pazmino, MD
Miami Plastic Surgeon

Sensation frequently returns

Loss of sensation after major breast surgery can happen, albeit infrequently. The good news is that most of the time, loss of sensation to the nipple is temporary and usually due to swelling from surgery. Give it some time to recover before you get defeated.

Kevin Brenner, MD
Los Angeles Plastic Surgeon

Numbness after breast surgery

It is fairly commond for patients to develop some numbness after surgery especially after repeated surgery of the breasts. Most likely this will improve over the next few months.

Steven Wallach, MD
Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

Nothing to do about numbness

Hi, Given your significant capsular contracture, your surgeon undoubtedly had to remove a thick layer of capsule from the undersurface of the skin. This can be a relatively tedious dissection and there often times there is thermal injury to the sensory nerves to the breast skin and nipple from the electrocautery used during surgery. Nerve recovery usually occurs in the weeks and months after surgery. Recovery may be patchy or may be complete - it's impossible to know. Unfortunately,... more

Sam Jejurikar, MD
Dallas Plastic Surgeon

Numbness after implant exchange

There is a small possibility of numbness after any breast surgery and it is higher the more that is done. Usually it returns well over many months. You might try massage and B complex vitamins, otherwise time is your best ally.

Richard P. Rand, MD, FACS
Seattle Plastic Surgeon

Numbness after breast implant exchange may not be permanent

Numbness can be seen after almost all cosmetic breast procedures but especially those involving implant placement, rearrangement or removal. The nerve supplying the nipple area is a branch of a sensory nerve running under a rib which makes its way from under the rib to the side of the breast goes in and it braches multiple times. Any traction (serious pulling) on it, pushing out on it (by the implant) and obviously cutting it would cause numbness to the areas supplied by those branches... more

Peter A. Aldea, MD
Memphis Plastic Surgeon

Sensory changes are not predictable with breast surgery

Any time that your breasts are operated on, you are taking a risk of altering or loosing sensation to the breast skin or nipple. Breast procedures that rearrange tissue or remove tissue are at higher risk for loosing sensation. In your case, it sounds like you had a very firm scar capsule around your implant. If your breast were "mostly implant" then there is a very small layer of tissue between the skin and the implant itself through which the nerves traveled to your nipple. ... more

Michael A. Bogdan, MD
Dallas Plastic Surgeon

Numbness can be from many reasons

Hello, If your numbness is from the tissue just being re-arranged, at least some of the sensation should come back. If it is from nerves that were removed with the scar capsules it will not. The process of healing can take weeks to months. See if your surgeon has any information from your surgery to help predict more accurately. I did not do that surgery.

John P. Di Saia, MD
Orange Plastic Surgeon

Doing something about numbness

Sgrizzard: The numbness is caused by the presence of many tiny nerves coursing through the tissue that was removed in order to treat your prior implant area hardening (capsular contracture). The treatment requires the surgeon to work beyond the limits of the original breast pocket. The surgeon must actually remove tissue rather than just creating a space as was done during your first surgery. To enhance the recovery there is nothing that you can do initially. When sensation begins to... more

Sutton Graham II, MD
Greenville Plastic Surgeon

It will take time for the sensation to improve

It sounds like you had very significant contractures which required extensive surgery to remove the scar tissues. Undoubtedly, the sensation nerves were entrapped in the scar tissue and were likely severed during the resection. This is not a "complication" per se, because the whole reason for the surgery was removal of the contracted tissue which involved the nerves. Fortunately, the little nerve endings continue to grow and, over time, you should get return of some sensation. However,... more

David Shafer, MD
New York Plastic Surgeon

www.ShaferPlasticSurgery.com

Nerve Injury

Your numbness is a direct result from the surgery. Most likely you had a capsulectomy, which is a removal of the thick, hard, scar tissue suruounding the old implants, and resulted in the contracture. During the procedure, the scar tissue is excised, and some tiny nerves that provide sensation to the skin are damaged, and this is unavoidable. Over time, you should note the return of sensation that will be first manifest by tingling, pins and needle sensation, shooters, and other strange... more

Scott E. Kasden, MD
Dallas Plastic Surgeon

Be patient

First of all,there is not much you can do about the numbness so worrying about it is not going to make it go away. You are also fairly soon after your procedure so loss of sensation is expected after repeat operation and takes time to recover. Numbness generally will lessen, not worsen, so be patient. However to answer your question more completely, there are numerous nerves that supply the breast skin and nipple area. In general, they go into the breast from the sides of the breast and... more

Robin T.W. Yuan, MD
Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon

Usually sensation returns.

Hi! It sounds like you had extensive surgery with a total or sub total capsulectomy (removal of the internal scar tissue). So it is not surprising that the nerves to the breast skin and to the nipples may have been bruised or stretched. But they almost always recover and sensation comes back within a few months. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to speed up recovery. And it is possible but unlikely that the numbness is permanent. In over twenty years of doing many hundreds of... more