Patient education
Seroma After Surgery: Recognising and Managing Problems
Written for someone who has had an operation and can feel fluid under the skin. Why fluid gathers under lifted skin, how a seroma is recognised and told from a hematoma or an infection, why it is aspirated, why it so often refills, and what repeated drainage means for healing.
All guides
10 guides
- Swelling After Surgery That Will Not Settle: The Ordinary CourseNormal recovery
- Why Fluid Collects Under Lifted SkinUnderstanding
- A Soft, Squishy Swelling: How a Seroma Is RecognisedRed flags
- Seroma, Hematoma or Infection: Telling Three Collections ApartRed flags
- How a Collection Is Assessed, and What Aspiration ShowsWork-up
- Why a Seroma Is Drained Rather Than Left AloneTreatment
- Why a Seroma Returns After It Is DrainedRecovery
- Drains: What They Prevent and What They Do NotPrevention
- Red Flags Around a Collection, and What to Do NowTriage
- What Repeated Drainage Means for Healing and for the ResultLimits
How it feels matters more than how large it is
If a collection after surgery is tense, leaking or red, contact your treating team and describe how it feels and whether it has changed. For a tense collection, fluid leaking from a closed wound or a change in the skin over it, seek care the same day.