Infected Seroma

Two weeks after my last lumpectomy I felt a hard bump under the incision and the incision looked a little red to me. My surgeon said not to worry that it was probably a reaction to the sutures. Well, five days later I felt a larger lump/hardness under my incision, my breast started to hurt and by the morning had swollen to twice its normal size. It appears I had a seroma, which can be an ideal environment for bacteria to grow. Like you the fluid tested positive for staph. I was admitted to the hospital, the abscess was removed surgically, and I was put on IV antibiotics and went home with antibiotics and a drain. Three weeks after that I started to feel something similar as before. There wasn't as much hardness, but a little bit of pus came out of the incision and it felt hot underneath and the incision was redder than before. I went right back to my surgeon and she put me on antibiotics just in case. The redness and hot feeling went away the next day. I am having a mastectomy next and my surgeon said they might remove the whole lumpectomy incision in case there is some bacteria still there.

I hope your infection is resolved soon. It sounds like drain is a good idea and that keeping the fluid draining will be key to healing. I wouldn't hesitate to go back to your doctor immediately if you feel a change or like the infection is getting worse or a new one is developing.

You can't drain a staph infection away! Somewhere in there they have to give you an antibiotic - the sooner the better. I went in for a BMX with permanent implants and within 8 hours of getting to my room, was running a fever. The first two antibiotics did nothing to stop the infection, fever got higher each day, and by day three the gram-positive staph infection had done a lot of damage. I was changed to the "big gun", IV Vancomycin and was in the hospital for 7 days, then home with the IV  Vanc and a visiting nurse for another 7 days before returning for another surgery. I lost parts of three muscles and all the soft tissue under my arm, on my side, and the outside third of my left implant. The implant was removed as well and replaced with an empty tissue expander. The other implant was not affected. I stayed on IV Vanc one month.

What was supposed to be a "one and done" operation seven months ago has turned into a series of surgeries. I'm 10 days out from surgery #4 to repair muscles in my shoulder, axilla, and onto the left pec. I will have surgery #5 in about two months, as soon as the current incisions heal, inside and out.

You do not want to mess with a staph infection. The consequences of waiting even a day can be terrible.

Hi Allebasi, I'm sorry you're going through this. Mum had an infection and seroma after her surgery, but they didn't re-insert the drain, they just had her come in twice a week and the surgeon or nurse emptied the seroma out with syringes. And put her on strong antibiotics as she hadn't yet had chemo and couldn't start til the infection cleared.

Initially it was very badly handled - I took her to the hospital when she started feeling very ill very quickly, but the nurses only focussed on the seroma, and ignored the newly developing infection - took her temperature only because we asked repeatedly, said it was up slightly, and to 'draw circles around the red area' for 2 days until her routine check up with the surgeon so the doctor could see how much bigger it grew (this makes me sick thinking back, as it resulted in a month of poor health, delayed chemo, and probably worse scarring/healing than she would otherwise have had) . The surgeon (who is very good) took one look at it and said she should have been put on antiobiotics sooner.

I would've thought maybe there's alternative form of antibiotics for your situation - eg IV as suggested, or perhaps some of the anaerobic ones dentists use. If the infection is only in the fluid of the seroma (did I interpret that right?) surely there's a risk of it spreading to the surrounding breast tissue, so antibiotics might serve a preventative use there as well?

I hope they are taking good care of you, and sadly I would have to say, kick up a fuss if you feel it's not being adequately addressed.

sweettamari, I am right there with you. I had a huge hematoma after my first lumpectomy. After the second lumpectomy I developed seroma which filled the area left by the previous hematoma. It got going last weekend--had to call the BS; she reassured me that my breast wasn't going to die. The following Tues I went in and had it relieved--305ml. No even exaggerating. Yikes. Went in on Fri and had it relieved again. BS reassures me that seromas hardly ever get infected.

Uh oh. Woke up in the early wee hours of Sun morning with fever over 102. Breast hot and swollen. Called BS when the sun came up and she called in an antibiotic. That was yesterday.

Today, went to see the BS to talk about putting a drain in. She did an ultrasound which revealed only a very little fluid in the pocket. She took off about 8ml of very nasty looking fluid. So, no drain at this time. At least my temperature is under 100 now. I still feel like a truck hit me.

I go back Wed to see how this turns out.