Fluid bags after upper and lower eyelid surgery (Photo)

You have post op edema. This is normal after surgery. It can last several weeks, but it does fully resolve. I recommend gentle massage and icing 2-3x/day as well. Speak to your doctor, a round of corticosteroid medication may be helpful.

If you have any photos of your eyes before surgery, have a look to see if there was any fullness in this same area. The area of fullness that has become apparent since your surgery may well be swelling (post operative oedema). This will improve over time with the correct management. If the fullness was present before surgery it may well indicated malar mounds which can progress to festoons.You should see your surgeon regularly as this area improves.

Perhaps the most important question regarding the fluid bags on your cheeks is how long has it been since your eyelid surgery? Certainly, your surgeon may be right and that it could just be postop swelling but if more than six months have passed since your last operation, then you may need to seek other answers. Certainly, these could be malar mounds, malar bags or festoons and you may want to learn about your options going forward.

It is normal to have increased swelling after surgery for a few weeks and even up to a few months. This should continue to improve with time. If you recently had surgery, you can also ask your surgeon for a short course of oral steroids to help with the swelling.

To make an accurate assessment regarding the outcome of a plastic surgery procedure, we need to see proper sets of before and after pictures. If you don’t have before and after pictures and ask your surgeon to forward the pictures they took. It looks like you have malar or early festoons. Both of these conditions are poorly understood, and are difficult to treat.
The starting point should always be an accurate assessment, and a your case. This requires having a good understanding of the impact of the procedure, which requires proper before, and after pictures. From there, on various potential treatment options regarding midface volume augmentation, may or may not be advantageous in your case. Treating the edema or fullness may turn out to be quite challenging. Often patients may have some underlying mailer edema as baseline. It’s not typically brought out by having surgery.
This condition is difficult to pinpoint exactly, so expect a different providers to have different legitimate opinions about the cause ideology and potential treatment options.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom, MD