Early Exercise Not Tied to Breast Augmentation Complications

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 5, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Early exercise following primary breast augmentation does not increase complications, according to a study published in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Felipe V. Basile, M.D., and Thais S. Oliveira, M.D., both in private practice in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, investigated the effects of early exercise (one week after surgery) on postoperative complications, scar quality, and patient-reported outcomes among 225 women undergoing primary breast augmentation surgery. The patients were randomly assigned to exercise or control.

The researchers found that complication rates did not change between the control (7.5 percent) and exercise groups (6.9 percent). Scar quality was comparable between the groups when assessed 12 months after surgery. The BREAST-Q Augmentation Module: Satisfaction with Outcome score was higher for the intervention group (66.3 in the control group and 83.4 in the exercise group).

“The most important finding that these data suggest is that early exercise following primary breast augmentation in patients who are already exercising does not increase complication or reoperation rates or cause a reduction in scar quality after one year,” Basile and Oliveira write. “These findings are in line with a broader tendency recently seen in other surgical fields in which early exercise was shown to be safe without increasing complication rates.”

Abstract/Full Text