I had diep flap reconstruction about 8 weeks ago. I had an infection when leaving the hospital that caused an open wound. I fought the infection for about 6 weeks. Now that the infection is gone I have a strong odor and yellow, oily, discharge. I'm going to my plastic surgeon in about 4 weeks. Should I be worried or call him? What is this? Also there seems to be a pocket or hole up under the top of the open wound. Seems there is an absence of tissue.
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Usually for my patients I try to perform the reconstruction so they have no revisions. But it is common to require one or two revisions including fat transfer to get a perfect result.
Although a DIEP flap and a tummy tuck both remove the lower abdominal skin and fat, there are differences. During a tummy tuck, the fat above the umbilicus is often thinned during the procedure. Liposuction is not usually performed at the time of a DIEP because the focus is on completing the...
This is an excellent question asked by many of my patients. In fact, this is something that i wanted to improve for my patients and now routinely connect the nerves when performing DIEP flap reconstruction. I have published by research to show that this does indeed help to improve the sensation....
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