dog ear removal surgery and lymphedema

glennie19

Hi all.

I was scheduled to have my dog ears removed next month and pretty excited about it. My surgeon didn't tell me he was going to leave excess skin, so I was surprised when I ended up with it. Now I seem to have a mild case of lymphedema.  The surgeon said it looked fine, but my oncologist said I had a mild case. I'm seeing a lymphedema certified therapist tomorrow. 

My question to you is:  how risky would it be to have the dog ears removed with having lymphedema? I'm kind of afraid that having surgery would make it worse.  I'll be seeing a different surgeon than my original one to get them removed, so I'll be checking with him after I see the therapist, but I wanted to ask over here if any of y'all have had surgery after a lymphedema diagnosis.

I know this is only a cosmetic procedure, and not life-saving, but I really wanted to have it done,,, but I don't want to do it if it will make the lymphedema worse.

Thanks!!

glennie

Binney4

Glennie, hello,

The risk with surgery in an area with LE is that infection is more likely, so do talk to your surgeon about using prophylactic antibiotics shortly before surgery and for a while afterward. Here are more guidelines for surgery in an area with LE:

http://www.stepup-speakout.org/Emergencies_and_Med…

If you scroll up to the top of that page too you can learn how to recognize the signs of infection, so you'll be aware.

Hope it all goes smoothly for you--do keep us posted!
Gentle hugs,
Binney

glennie19

Thank you so much for the information!

glennie