Breast Lift not healing, loss of skin 2 - 3 inches wide/long. Will my skin grow back and close the area? (photos)

Thank you for your picture. Your wound looks pretty healthy. It will take at least 2 to 3 months for this to heal completely. Your plastic surgeon is exactly correct to say that the skin will be discolored and there will be more scarring than desired. The scar can be revised with several surgeries. It sounds like that you are doing everything correctly. 

You have a very sizable defect after the mastopexy. This will probably close in time with good one care. A skin graft may hasten closure and can be removed when the breast is revised months later.

I'm sorry you had such an experience. It will take a very long time for this wound to heal. Open wounds heal by secondary intention. This simply means that the open wound will begin healing by contracture. The wound edges will start to contract towards the middle. In addition, you will have little islands of epithelium (skin) in the wound itself that appear as small white spots. From here the skin starts to grow out and eventually unite with exam other to obtain coverage of the wound. Be patient and follow your surgeon's advice. Good luck

Sorry to hear about your wound healing issue.  Fortunately, it looks clean, and non-infected at the moment.  There are 3 main approaches to this kind of problem:1)  let it gradually heal in, and then revise the scar surgically at a later time, to make it look better,2)  take you back to surgery and re-advance the flaps.  There is a possibility, though, that the wound could break-down a second time.3)  Put a temporary covering on the wound - skin graft, dermal matrix, etc....and then revise the scar later.Speak with your surgeon about these options.  Not knowing all the details of your case, it's hard to tell you which one is best in this forum.Good luck.

I'm very sorry to hear about your complication.  The wound is very clean, but the width is significant.  allowing this to heal on its own will cause some contraction and most likely distort the nipple position.  Furthermore, it will probably take months to heal.  I would suggest with your surgeon the possibility of skin grafting the wound.  This would speed up you recovery and hopefully minimize the contraction/distortion.  The skin graft could be sequentially cut out at a later date to help with scarring.

Hi. Sorry to hear you have had this problem and I understand it can be very distressing. The wound looks healthy to a medical eye. It will take months of dressing to heal it but in this process your body also contracts the wound so the final scarring will not look as big as the area in your photo. A small revision at a later date can improve things considerably so please do not despair. Best wishes

Thank you very much for your message
and photograph and I’m sorry you have had problems with healing the skin.



I must say I agree with your
plastic surgeon that the area will heal completely in time and you can see from
the skin on the edges of the wound that it is showing signs of purple scar
formation.



In addition the wound looks very
clean and well looked after.



I think your plastic surgeon is
right that the scarring will continue to heal from the outside and will
contract.



I suspect that you will be left
with a widened pinky scar initially which, in most cases, will fade to a pale
colour.



Once the skin is fully healed,
which I would anticipate will take 3-4 months depending slightly on factors
such as whether you smoke and your general health, it might be worth using a
silicone gel such as Kelicote on the scar to help soften it.



Once the area is fully healed it
would then be sensible to discuss with your plastic surgeon whether revisional
surgery would be beneficial.



In summary, I’m sorry you had such
a problem healing following your surgery, this is very unusual and your doctor
is right that the best way forward is to let this heal on its own. I would anticipate that within 2-3 months the
area should have healed in most people.



Best wishes

Appears as a complete wound dehiscence has occurred. Healing with even aggressive care can take months. Best to see your surgeon in person for a FULL explanation...I might use wound VAC or hyperbaric O2 therapy..  

With an open wound as large as this a wound vac would do wonders and drastically speed up the healing process.   Your plastic surgeon may also want to consider hyperbaric oxygen therapy as well.  

Dr Fiala has given a good answer to your question though I might add the use of a portable wound vac to speed closing of the woundDe Corbin