If the Areola is Cut Open, Would It Heal Back to How It Was Before or with "Normal" Skin?

I'm not sure that you really understand how the surgery is performed. If you leave a wound open to heal on its own, it will heal with a scar with poor cosmesis. It will also take a long time to heal, not to mention be quite painful. The healing process would also involve skin contraction that will distort your breasts. No board certified plastic surgeon would recommend such a thing. 

 

I suggest you see a board certified plastic surgeon in person to provide you with a better description/pictures/diagrams so you can better understand what happens. 

 

Best,

Asif Pirani, MD, FRCS(C) 

If you make a cut between the areola and skin and leave it open, it will heal slowly by secondary intention. This heals with scar tissue, most likely leaving a wide scar of neither areola skin nor normal skin. Theoretically, this would need then to be repaired with surgery.

Letting the wound heal in like that will lead to poor scarring and nipple-areolar deformity. 

 All incisions heal with a scar. The skin adjacent to the scar is your skin. Scarring is unpredictable and a lot of your healing tendencies are genetically predetermined.

All incisions heal with scars. An accurate approximation with sutures or some alternative (steri-strips, glue) gives the best chance of a nice scar. If left open, the incision will heal, but has a greater chance of a wider scar. 

Thanks and best wishes.

Thank you for the question. Leaving a wound open will produce a wide scar which will most likely distort the breast as well. The purpose of closing the wound is to get the thinnest, imperceptible scar, with the least amount of architectural distortion possible.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

It is always better to have a controlled situation when it comes to scarring or healing.  Or at least as best as possible. Sewing the two sides together will probably produce a better result.

Thank you for the theoretical question.

Allowing a wound to heal as you described would result in a wide  and (probably) depressed scar.  The resulting scar would not necessarily look like areola skin or “normal skin”.

I hope this helps.

It has been known for Thousands of years that wounds can heal by a variety of ways
1- Primary or healing byfirst intention - gives the BEST results - the tissue is cut with a scalpel, the underlying operation, if one is carried out is completed, the skin is then brought together with well placed stitches which guide the healing. incised

2. Secondary or healing by secondary intention - leaves a wide scar. When the wound edges are not brought together (bwecause the wound was heavily contaminated, because it busted open or because it was not stitched) the wound heals with granulation tissue, followed by scar contraction and is then covered with a layer of epithelial cells which may be fragile..

3. Third intention healing (delayed primary) - an in between cosmetic result. In cases where the wound is too contaminated for a safe primary closure, the wound is left open and dressed UNTIL it looks nice and pink/red, at that point the wound can be stitched safely. (May be seen in intestine surgery cases, gunshots to the belly etc). 

 

Allowing a breast incision to heal by secondary healing is NOT a good idea. The resulting scar would be much more noticeable and disappointing.

 

Good Luck

 

Peter a Aldea, MD
Memphis, TN

Leaving the wound open to heal will leave a poor scar.  It will leave you with neither regular skin nor areolar skin but instead a thick wide scar...  Yes, the areolar reduction removes areolar skin but there is no real way around this.  Good luck!