Is face and neck swelling common after breast augmentation?

Thank you for your question.  Depending on the dissection methods employed during surgery you may see some mild swelling of your upper chest/lower neck region.  As long as this swelling is not worsening, try sleeping with a few extra pillows under your back to allow gravity to help it resolve.  If your swelling worsens, call and discuss your symptoms with your surgeon.

Hi Carlonav,Thank you for your question.  This is not the right forum to address emergencies, since it takes 1-2 days for responses to be processed by moderators, but I hope you have presented to your clinic or an ER.  This is not something I have seen in my practice and would make me concerned about several etiologies that would need to be worked up.  Without any details, I am only guessing and imaging the worst.  For academic purposes, my biggest concern would be air tracking from your lung in to the soft tissues of your neck and face.  This would be associated with a crackle-pop sound when you push on the skin (crepitus). The etiology of this would be a pneumothorax from entering your chest space while performing your breast augmentation (most commonly submuscular).  This is considered an emergency and would need to be worked up and treated in an ER.Another concern would be issues with clotting of the veins draining from your head and neck.  The extreme version of this is superior vena cava syndrome and to my knowledge has never occurred with breast augmentation.  Having said that, if you have underlying health issues that were not picked up before surgery, then the stress of surgery could unmask them.Other less benign reasons for the swelling would be volume shifts after undergoing general anesthesia.  I ask my patients to start a low salt diet 2 weeks prior, to minimize volume and postoperative swelling.  I hope that all is well with you and that my above concerns are false.  The most common etiology is likely benign, but you should be seen and evaluated ASAP.Best,Dr. B