In this Consultant Q&A video, Miss Anita Hazari, Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, covers several areas of her expertise. She begins by detailing what happens during breast reduction surgery before highlighting potential complications associated with the procedure.
The discussion then moves on to labiaplasty, where Miss Hazari focuses on the key reasons why women visit her for this procedure, before explaining how it can help provide relief, improve comfort, and enhance overall quality of life for her patients.
Q1. What happens during breast reduction surgery?
A. Breast reduction surgery is performed under general anaesthetic as an inpatient, and you stay in hospital one night. It usually takes about two or sometimes three hours to actually do the operation. The surgery involves making a cut round the nipple and further cuts further down. The resultant scar that you get is more of an anchor shape, so, you have a scar that goes round the nipple, a vertical, and then one in the crease. It involves moving the nipple from where it is relatively low on the breast to where it should be, and the fullness underneath the breast is removed. The way the nipple is moved to from south to north is by moving it on a tongue of breast tissue through which the blood supply comes to the nipple. We don't call it a tongue, we call it a pedicle. So, the nipple is still attached to the breast tissue, and it's literally just swung up into the new position and the tissue removed underneath and closed.
Q2. What are some potential complications of breast reduction surgery?
A. Breast reduction surgery is a major operation, so you do need to plan for taking approximately two weeks off work and refrain from doing any heavy duty lifting or housework for some weeks afterwards, you will need help at home as well.
Now the complications in the long term, you will have scars, these scars will remain red and lumpy for several months and take 18 months to fade. Other problems, same as any operation you may have had in the past, are things like bleeding, hematoma, infection. But the main things you need to remember with breast reduction is that you will lose sensation in the nipple and whatever sensation you have at the end of say six months to a year, that's what you'll end up with. Sometimes, very rarely one can have something called nipple necrosis when bits of the area or the nipple dies because the blood supply is reduced and that's most common in those ladies who are smoking or using any nicotine replacement. So, it's really important to stop smoking or using any nicotine replacements such as vaping or lozenges or chewies for at least eight weeks prior to the operation.
Q3. What are the primary reasons patients choose labiaplasty?
A. One of the operations that I offer is labia minora reduction surgery, this is specifically for long labia minora, which protrude beyond the outer ones, so the inner lips. And the main issues women who come for this operation face are usually discomfort in tight clothes, such as jeans or tights, when you go for a wee, the urine sprays in the pan, or when you have intercourse sometimes the labia minora internalizes and gives rise to painful sex. It is a useful operation as it trims the excess away and keeps them neat and tidy, tucked within the outer ones.
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