Exchange surgery incision- same as mastectomy or new incision?

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SuBeez88
SuBeez88 Member Posts: 8
edited August 2020 in Breast Reconstruction

Hi all-

I'm going in for my bilateral exchange surgey soon.
My plastic surgeon said he makes a new incision under the breast crease. Is this common and what are the benefits? Clearly the drawback is having a second incision site (and I have a growing dread of having two healing areas) but I see the benefit is that he doesn't have to deal with the scar tissue from the original mastectomy incision.

Is this basically it or are there other things I'm not seeing? It sounds like surgeons do both but I haven't been able to find a good resource for explaing why.

Would love to hear from you ladies on your experience. TIA!

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  • DiveCat
    DiveCat Member Posts: 968
    edited July 2020

    Where are your current incisions? I have not had TEs as I did direct but I have exchanged implants twice now. My mastectomy incisions were along my IMF (in what you call the breast crease I think!) and he has used the same spot for the exchanges (though cut a smaller incision for those). While I am sure maybe if they were only used once they may have been even less noticeable than they are I tend to “scar well” (silvery-white and faint) and I didn’t have any issues with them healing. Excepting for where my drains are and a couple added points from fat grafting (thought he did two of those in IMF too) my scars are well hidden in my IMF by my implants.

    If he uses the IMF for you they should be well hidden which may be why he wants to go that way, and depending where your current incisions are, may be easier to manipulate the implant back in

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  • Tmh0921
    Tmh0921 Member Posts: 714
    edited July 2020

    I'm having my exchange surgery on Thursday 7/16. My plastic surgeon is using the original incision sites (across middle of breasts) so as not to introduce more incisions/scars.


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  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited July 2020

    My PS used the same incision site for me too.



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  • SuBeez88
    SuBeez88 Member Posts: 8
    edited August 2020

    My current incisions are across the middle of the breast area. And the new incisions for the implants will be IMF which sounds common for a lot of people. I think you are right they will be more hidden since they are under the breast and hopefully, the healing will go fine. Just nervous about a new incision.

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  • OnTarget
    OnTarget Member Posts: 447
    edited August 2020

    Mine used the same incisions.

    I'm not sure what the Pros are. Perhaps better healing because the skin there is closer to a better blood supply?

    One con of new incisions is that they won't correct your stretched out scars. When they go through the original incisions, they cut out the stretched scar and it will look thinner.


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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited August 2020

    My PS used the same incision - straight across the middle of the breast. After 8 years the scars are almost not noticeable at all.

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