Every surgery has its good and bad points. Surgery is performed to correct some defect. But it also has side effects like pain, uneasiness, unpleasantness, discomfort and so on. Plastic surgery is performed by expert surgeons to improve the defects, contour the body and make it look beautiful.
Tissue expanders are used as implants in a body to expand tissue and grow it to be used in the same place or elsewhere. These implants are devices, which are round or cylindrical or square and are injected with saline or silica gel to expand the skin or the bones or any tissue of the body. The expanders are foreign matter to the body and it may fight it off or reject it outright. Though most tissue expanders are made of body compatible material, they are extra devices inserted into the body.
There is bound to be some discomfort or pain. But the end result would compensate for the discomfort and the pain. The pain due to a tissue expander is a minor kind as compared to the type of pain caused by some cancers. Many patients go in for tissue expanders and body contouring without giving much thought to the pain they cause. Though it is true that there is no gain without pain, it still is a reality that expanders inserted in some part of the body do cause pain. However the pain is not such that it should deter the patient from undergoing the procedure. There is no cause for panic as there are always medications to combat pain. There is no cause to get frightened either, as it is a necessary devil and it is quite natural to suffer pain from an implant or an expander.
People vary greatly in how much pain they can tolerate and also how much pain they will have after the insertion of a tissue expander. In a mastectomy breast reconstruction, the pain of the mastectomy will be there and this will be an added pain. If the patient is mentally prepared for the pain and knows what to expect, then half the battle is won. The patient will find it uncomfortable for the first couple of days to move the arm on which side the implant or the expander has been introduced. But the doctor and the physiotherapist will advice the patient what to do and how to get relief from the pain. |
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