What Causes Aches In The Leg After Breast Reduction?

Posted on Tue, 9 May 2017

Question: I am a 35 year old woman, normal BMI, usually active. I had a breast reduction through liposuction only 5 days ago. Since then, I've been fairly sedentary, but have moved around the apartment for a few minutes at a time probably at least every 2 hours or so while awake. I've gone on 2 longer walks outside (20ish minutes). I'm fairly anxious about health issues, and I'm worried about blood clots resulting from the general anesthesia and being less active in the last few days/feeling a little achey in my legs when I do walk around. I don't have any signs of a blood clot, to my knowledge. My legs don't seems swollen, hot, or red; I'm not short of breath or dizzy; my pulse is normal. But I know this is a potential risk/complication of having surgery, and I'm wondering how worried I should be, what I should look out for, and for how long I should be concerned.

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (9 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
You seem to be at very low risk of blood clots.

Detailed Answer:
Hello.

Thank you for the query.

Liposuction in general is a risk factor of fatty clots (not blood clots) however the risk of it is really minimal.
If you do not have any congenital cloating problems (I am sure you dont), no leg varices, you are not obese, do not take contraceptives, do not smoke, and the surgery was not longer than an hour or two, your risk of blood clots is very very low.
If you have any of mentioned risk factors, heparin injections for next 5 days should be considered.

You have no symptoms of blood ckots, so in my opinion there is no reason to be worried.

Hope this helps.
Regards.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad