Wound dehiscense post DIEP?

KTinClayton

Hello everyone! I am a 7 year survivor who just moved from implant reconstruction to DIEP. After all my reading I held my breath for the first 10 days for no complications with the flap however about 4 days ago I started to have "holes" appear on the incision line of the donor site. I am very concerned about this as the plastic surgeon and his nurse both just provided a tube of ointment and said to use it daily. My husband encountered a similar situation after a surgery under his arm and that required packing of the wound and constant attention thus my concern here.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? If so, what steps did you take to resolve it and how long did it take to heal?

Thank you for whatever help you might provide!

Imdtm23

I had diep flap in Dec and my abdomen opened up about 4 weeks later. They first tried just watching it then it opened even more. My PS scheduled me back for surgery. He cleaned up the wound and stitched my entire abdomen incision back up. A week later. I developed a seroma and they had to cut a section of it open and pack it. I had so much packing I felt like a magician doing the scarf trick. My PS stressed to me to eat PROTEIN, PROTEIN and more PROTEIN. I ate over 100g of protein a day and it went from an 8cm hole to barely there in a month. Hang in there!

KTinClayton

lmdtm23 - thank you so much for your reply! That is significantly past the "should be good to go" 10 day mark - did your surgeon happen to advise what might have caused it to open? I'm pushing the protein and am going to attempt to cut back significantly on my calories with the thought that perhaps if I drop a few pounds there might be some relief on any pressure on the incision...

Imdtm23

He told me that it can happen because location of the incision and the tension. I think that it started because my underware would rub it so after my 2nd surgery I went out and bought what I call Granny panties so the elastic was no where near my wound.