Can the vagus nerve be damaged during breast augmentation surgery?

Hello!  Thank you for the question.  It would be nearly impossible to damage this nerve during the procedure such as the one that you had.  It is likely unrelated to the actual surgical procedure.  Anesthetic risks and medications, although possible, is still unlikely. 

Thank you for your question. It would be nearly impossible to damage the vagus nerve with a Breast Augmentation. The nerves isdeep underneath the rib cage, and the breast augmentation is well on top of this. Best advice would be to seek consultation with a primary care physician who may be able to help better define this for you.

Thank you for your question.  It is unlikely to have a vagus nerve injury following your breast augmentation procedure.  My strong advice is to consult with your primary care physician regarding your current condition.  Best of luck.

Hiccups can be a sign of certain medical conditions that require treatment, or may be just a benign condition.  You may want to follow up with your operating surgeon and get a referral from him or her on how to follow up and diagnose the problem.  It would be very unlikely to injure the vagus nerve itself, but diaphragmatic irritation can be caused by several different conditions that do warrant a workup.

It's very unlikely that your hiccups are related to your breast augmentation or that your surgery caused a damage to the vagus nerve. Many people get hiccups due to irritation of their diaphragm or from other GI issues. ~Dr. Sieber

It would not be possible to directly injure your vagus nerve during breast augmentation surgery.  The nerve exits the brain at the base of the skull and travels deep in the neck, into the chest cavity along the trachea and aorta, and finally enters the abdominal cavity.  If the nerve were injured, your surgeon would have to have entered your neck, thoracic cavity or abdominal cavity in which case you would have had bigger issues.  Hiccups are caused either locally by irritation of the stomach or diaphram or centrally in the brain.  I would recommend consulting with a gastroenterologist or neurologist for your problem but rest assured the problem is not related to your implants.

I don't think the vagus nerve is anywhere near the augmentation site, neither in front of nor behind the pectoral major muscle.  such an injury is not even listed as a potential complication of breast augmentation.  the timing following the procedure is interesting.  you may not want to do this but you could consider having the implants removed to see if that helps.  no one could guarantee that would help with the hiccups.  I have heard of chronic hiccups which is fortunately unusual.