Recently in doing CME, one of the questions was “A 24 year old medical student is considering breast augmentation. She asks you what breast augmentation will do to the lymphatic drainage of her breast? Which of the following is your best answer?”
Hmmm.
When looking at the answers offered, I thought I don’t think it affects the drainage. I have done a residency in Plastic Surgery and a breast fellowship after, have gone to tons of meetings, done breast augmentations for 20+ years, and have not seen lymphatic drainage being an issue (which would cause lymphedema, which is a swelling of the tissue, and super hard to treat). But anecdotal evidence isn’t the same as a study.
The answer?
There is Level II evidence that NO, breast augmentation does not interfere with lymphatic drainage.
What is the study? It was done by Sado, published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal in 2008. It was a study of 20 augmentation patients using lymphoscintigraphy before and after surgery. He evaluated the lymphatic drainage patterns between pre, recent postoperative, and late postoperative patients, and found there was no difference in drainage.