Stitches

The concept of stitches is a technical one and so Dr Bheem Singh Nanda tries to narrow it down for us. “Stitches, so this is a very surgical question. Stitches, I mean, all of them are absorbable stitches. In a mastectomy, all the stitches are double sutures.

And in Double Incision, the nipple has non-absorbable stitches. In it, we have to tighten the sutures and stitch so that I open on day 10. Apart from that mastectomy with that long line, just has absorbable stitches, you don’t have to open them. So on day 10 I change the dressing on the nipple, which we put when we do a double incision, we’ll have to cut those stitches off, they are non-absorbable stitches, and they don’t get absorbed so you have to cut them out.”

Drains

Drains are the pipes that let the blood out. Dr Bheem talks about how long they will be, “Drains will stay for a while. In fact, in a keyhole, it will stay longer because it has been done from a small hole, and from beneath that it is a huge cavity, and so beneath that is a huge cavity so usually the rule for the drain is that there will be drains on both sides, right and left different, and so if it is less than 20-25ml then we take them out. So usually, in 72 hours or on the 3rd day it gets really less. In keyholes, I have seen it take six days sometimes because in the keyhole the pocket is huge, and the space that has been created is huge. In Double Incision, you take out the extra skin and it is less so in DI I have seen that maximum of people get it removed within 72 hours but in the keyhole, we have to sometimes wait for 5-6 days.”

Number of visits

“So after surgery, 2 visits- 1st on day 3rd or 4th to take out your drains and then on day 10, that’s all.”