What Are the Potential Risks if Too Much Tissue Has Been Removed from Breast Reduction?

There are limits to the amount of breast tissue that can be removed during a breast reduction. If too much tissue is removed, it may compromise the blood suppy to one or both of your nipples. Also, if you are too small and don't like the size, you will likely need breast implants to correct this.  I hope this helps. Best of luck.

Thank you for the question.

If  too much breast tissue is removed during breast reduction surgery there may be problems related to blood flow to the remaining tissue and/or resulting breast size concerns.

The concern with the amount of tissue removed is related to blood flow to the remaining tissue;  if too much tissue is removed in one operation the blood flow to the remaining tissue (including nipple/areola)  may be compromised.   Part of the tissue that is left in place is called the “pedicle"; this segment of tissue is responsible for delivering the blood supply to the nipple/areola tissue. If the pedicle is made too small (in the effort to reduce the breasts as much as possible)  then patient will likely have problems with tissue survival.  Doing the procedure in more than one stage allows the tissues to  acclimate to the surgically decreased blood flow before  further tissue removal (and potentially further decreased blood flow)  occurs ( with the 2nd stage operation).

The other concern with overly aggressive breast reduction surgery is patient dissatisfaction  afterwards.  It is not unusual for patients who have lived with very large breasts to want to have as much as possible removed. Care must be taken to be judicious in this removal to avoid an outcome where the breasts  are too small in relation (proportionately) to the patient's other body parts.  Again, it is not uncommon, for patients'  breasts to become smaller ( after the breast reduction procedure) with time and/or weight loss-  breast augmentation may become necessary to achieve the patient size goals.

I hope this helps.
 

There are both aesthetic and functional risks related to over-resection of breast tissue in a breast reduction. If more than the desired amount of breast tissue was removed resulting in a breast size that is significantly smaller than desired the patient desired, this is not ideal (though subsequent implant placement can correct this to some extent). This can also have a negative impact on the overall breast shape.

If too much tissue is removed from a large breast, there is a substantial risk of some of the remaining tissues not receiving an adequate blood supply. This can result in localized loss of skin, breast tissue and even the nipple-areola complex (NAC). There can also be far greater loss or total loss of sensation of the NAC and skin.