Surgical incisions and sutures

[IzzyGee]

If you have professional or personal experience of surgery and healing I’d appreciate your view of my situation. Last November I had surgery on my boobs. I have a 6” cut under each boob which then goes up from there towards and around the nipple. I also have a 2” cut in one armpit. I was told to wear a bra day and night after surgery for 6 weeks which I did. My dressings were changed every few days up to my return appointment 2 weeks after surgery. At that appointment both the dressings and the tape holding the skin together was removed. The wounds looked fine, with just one T junction bit not totally knitted together. I was given a supply of surgical dressings to put in my bra for that small problem bit which took the best part of 6 weeks to heal over.

Once the tape was removed I could see some stitches. I was surprised they lasted several weeks and I admit I started to tug on them a bit. In fact I pulled a 2”-3” length of suture out of the single armpit wound. This is the point when I should have rung up and asked do these stitches dissolve? But being silly I didn’t want to ask. Surely they would have been removed at the return appointment?

Now nearly 6 months on I have worries about the scars under my boobs...the ones on the bra strap line. I find them really itchy and I can feel a ridge under the skin. Is this normal? Surely if the stitches needed to come out that would have happened at the return appointment.

So how much of a wally have I been?

The only person who knows is the operating surgeon (or somebody with access to their operation notes).

There are dozens of different suture materials and ways in which to use them which will determine the necessity and timing of removal or absorption.

Thank you Bone that’s interesting

If you needed the stitches to be removed you would've been advised. The fact that you were not suggests that they were meant to dissolve. Unless there has been an error or oversight on their part and they have mistaken one for the other. Worth checking.
Most stitches (atleast ones I have) did leave a slight thickening of skin. Not sure if that's the 'ridge' you feel?
Better late than never - just ask!

We usually use dissolvable sutures when we do breast surgery. There are different types and different thicknesses and they should dissolve in any time between 4 weeks and a few months.
The thickening that you are feeling is highly likely to be scar tissue- this always feels different and if you think about it, you say it is like a ridge under the skin. When the surgeon cuts the skin with a scalpel it is a very clean slice which will come together and feel like this.
When we do hand surgery, our hand surgeon advises people to rub any moisturiser into the wound several times a day for 10 minutes a time very firmly as this helps to reduce the thickness of scarring. I don’t think other surgeons advise this as it is less crucial to not have a ridge of scar tissue as it doesn’t affect function and probably because it would hurt to do this to other body parts. Also, we use non- absorbable sutures for hand surgery.

Non- absorbable sutures will be a coloured suture and visibly knotted above the surface of your skin. Absorbable sutures are hidden below the surface and we sometimes use skin glue on top too.
Hope this helps?

Another surgeon here. I agree with everything the previous poster said...

Gibble thank you.....you have put my mind at rest. The ridge sounds like it is the scar tissue. The itching is probably bra-related. My sutures were clear like fishing line so I suspect they didn’t need to be removed. And in fact I forgot to mention I was given cream to use daily

Happy to help xx
We use clear so you don’t end up with a line of tattoed dots showing up from the suture dye 😀