Breast cancer surgery is not the time to get a facelift. The outcome often is not good.
Q. I have breast cancer and I’m about to undergo a mastectomy. I had previously talked to my surgeon about having a facelift at the same time as my mastectomy. Do you think this is a good idea?
A. I would highly recommend that you only have the mastectomy, not the facelift. There is at least one medical reason why this combination is not great for you. Patients who have cancer have a higher rate of clotting. The longer the operation, the higher the risk of having clots.
Clots can be life-threatening, which is why I avoid combining aesthetic surgeries with cancer surgeries.
In addition, a patient who is about to undergo a cancer or reconstructive surgery has a different state of mind from a patient undergoing an anesthetic operation. When I have seen patients who have had combination treatments, either one or the other treatment suffers.
Many doctors who perform cancer operations may not have the training nor the aesthetic sense to make them exceptional at cosmetic surgery. While it may be convenient for both you and the surgeon to “knock out” two surgeries at a time, it is more important that your physician concentrate on the cancer cure than the additional cosmetic surgery.
I recently saw two patients who were going in for cancer surgery and had a cosmetic procedure. That turned out badly for both patients.
Dr. Carlos Wolf is a partner in Miami Plastic Surgery and is board certified. Email questions to him at Cwolf@miamiplasticsurgery.com. For more information, follow @carloswolfmd and @mpsmedspa on Instagram.
