Can an Injury to the Pec Area Trigger Gynecomastia?

Your description is quite accurate for a partial muscle tear causing an intramuscular hematoma (which is what caused the bruising and swelling). This should have been diagnosed and evacuated at the time of the injury, but letting this collection of blood reabsorb over 6 months' time has left persistent scar tissue in the right pec area.

Shame on your "cosmetic surgeon" consultant for failing to diagnose this, though 6 months after injury this may well have looked less like an old collection of blood and more like a fibrous mass of scar tissue that closely mimicked the consistency of gynecomastia tissue. Damage to the pec minor would have been less likely than damage to the pec major, but whichever muscle was injured is immaterial to the diagnosis.

At this point you require excision of the scar mass to equalize the chest/breast area. This can be done through a short periareolar incision, but beware--liposuction (including ultrasonic and laser-assisted) will be a spectacular failure and will NOT make any real improvement!  This scar tissue is very firm and fibrous--not at all like fatty tissue--and totally inappropriate for liposuction. Proper surgical treatment of this will require subcutaneous excision of the excess bulk, preserving a small disc of normal tissue beneath the nipple areola complex to prevent unnatural adherence to the underlying muscle, and placement of a drain for about a week. Make sure you see an American Board of Plastic Surgery-certified plastic surgeon, not a "cosmetic surgeon" who may have little true general surgical or plastic surgical training or experience!

Even when a muscle tears and causes a deformity (the most obvious one is biceps tear), unless it is immediately repaired, it can't be repaired.  What you can do is work on the soft tissue to disguise it.  Liposuction or excision of some breast tissue can be part of the cure.  Fat transfer or custom made implants for indentations.  

It sounds as though you may have ruptured part of your chest muscles.  They then balled up can are causing your gynecomastia.  The treatment may involve slightly larger scars, but the excess muscle may be amenable to excision in order to improve the appearance of your chest.

It sounds like you developed a hematoma from your injury that has now partially resolved, but you probably have scar tissue associated with the hematoma.  You may have some excess breast tissue or fat on your breast as well, but  this would not have developed from the injury.

Hi T71,Thanks for the post. The injury you sustained should not have any bearing on whether you have gynecomastia or not. Gynecomastia is due to an excess in breast tissue that gives the chest a more feminine appearance. Musculoskeletal injuries in and of themselves will not stimulate an increase in breast tissue formation.  It could be that you had a muscle injury and gynecomastia as well. You should be evaluated by a plastic surgeon experienced in gynecomastia surgery.Sincerely,Dr. Dadvand

Sounds like a ruptured Pec muscle. A CT scan or MRI should confirm this diagnosis. But this is not gynecomastia. If the pec tore at its connection to the arm, it should be fixed earlier rather than later.

There is no  literature about it,however It is not likely that the injury has relation to the gynecomastia .You should consult an experienced gynecomasia plastic surgeon to see If there is gynecomastia.Scar tissue is a possible explanation.

I doubt if the injury led to gynecomastia.Simply put,gynecomastia is excess breast tissue in men and nothing more.It also can be fatty tissue./so I don't believe the injury led to this.

I tousns like you may have tore your pectoralis major in your accident but without an exam I could not say. It would not cause gynecomastia.

In medicine you can never say never nor always, but it is very unlikely that you would develop gynecomastia due to an injury to your pectoral muscles.  Your deformity may well be due to your previous injury, but if there is also gynecomastia present, it is probably coincidental and not caused by that previous injury.