Puffy Nipples 6 months post op

[John495]

I had gyno surgery about 6 months ago. Only surgical excision was performed, no lipo suction was done. After surgery for about 3 weeks, my chest looked perfect and flat. The surgery seemed to be a good success. However, after 4 weeks, the nipples began to puff out again. Over the last few months, the puffiness has gone down a little, but I do still have a good amount of puffiness as well as pain in the nipple area. I went to my surgeon and he said that there was a very small bit of gland left, and that it could be risky to try and take some more out. He suggested that the puffyness could be due to excess skin. When I raise my arms up above my head, the nipple area is completely flat, and almost begins to look like it could cave in. It looks perfect with the arms raised up and is 100% flat, yet when I put my arms back down, the nipples still puff out quite a bit. What can I do to correct this? It may help to know that a lot of the skin around the nipple feels very loose and hollow when I pull on it. I can pull a good deal of skin and it feels hollow like it's empty. The skin appears tight, but when i pull it, it seems hollow and empty underneath. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

It might be helpful if you could post some photos in all positions.  Also, if possible, some pix of you pre-op.

Dr Jacobs

[Litlriki]

Agree with Dr. Jacobs--Photos, both pre- and post-op, would be extremely helpful.  If you don't feel significant tissue under the nipple, it may be that the skin is a bit lax, and tightening could flatten it out a bit at the expense of a peri-areolar scar.  If your scar is minimal from the first procedure, that shouldn't be a big problem, but if you had significant scarring, doing an incision all the way around could be problematic.