What to Do About Oozing After Arm Lift?

Congratulations on having undergone the arm lifting surgery. Arm lifting is an excellent procedure to improve the contour of the arms and remove redundant skin and adipose tissue; the downside is a relatively high rate of unsatisfactory scarring and the need for revisionary surgery. Drainage from the incision line may be related to lymphatic fluid drainage or maybe sign of infection. Either way, your plastic surgeon will be able to diagnose and treat you after... more

If your arms are oozing two weeks after surgery, then I would follow-up closely with your surgeon to make sure that things are healing OK.

It sounds like you might have a lymphatic leak within the arm lift wound. These typically resolve on their own, or with the aid of a compressive garment. Occasionally, the lymph fluid forms a pocket (seroma) of liquid that needs to be drained. Talk with your surgeon- it sounds like he/she can handle this relatively minor post-op issue.

First, I take issue with those prior surgeons who were critical of your having "too much surgery at one time".  If your surgeon is experienced with single-stage body contouring, and has a solid team to perform it successfully, and you're healthy enough to undergo the surgery, there is no reason you can't have multiple body contouring procedures at one time.  I do this quite often, in fact, and most of my patients do very well.  You are having an issue... more

First of all, you had more done in one day than I would have suggested but that being said, I think your course sounds normal because massive weight loss patients have copious lymphatic channels that weep when they are cut in surgery. As long as the area is not red, swollen and hot, indicative of infection, this should subside spontaneously. For sure, you should direct this immediately back to your surgeon.

Wide undermining of the skin flaps with an arm lift or any other type of body lift procedure may lead to recurrent seroma formation.  This will subside with time as long as the dead space is suctioned and the seroma does not get infectted.

Hi, That is quite a bit of surgery you had, and I have no doubt, that you have quite a bit of swelling as well. This can be the source of the persistent drainage, however, you should be noting a steady, daily improvement in this. Regardless, you should be discussing this with your plastic surgeon, who can help identify what the cause of the drainage is.

Have you and why wouldn't you discuss this with your surgeon. She/he would want to know!. They are best equipped to tell you what is really going on. In individuals with alot of upper extremity edema this can occur for up to 3 weeks and may be normal. However, if it is associated with warmth and tenderness it could be a sign of early wound separation or infection. To limit edema (swelling) many surgeons advise compression garments. You may wnat to discuss this with your surgeon as... more