Fluid in port area

Cathy, This is called a seroma, and is quite common at the port si in the days after band surgery. The fluid can be manually expressed if the doctor has instructed at surgery about seromas, so then the fluid rarely builds up  enough to require needle drainage.

Is he having you now gently squeeze out any  further fluid, so it does not build up and require regular needle dainings? This is the common practice and treatment.

Sandy r
band educator
at normal BMI goal 6+ yrs
banded 7+ yrs

Cathy, The standard treatment of a seroma,  from the moment the patient notices the seroma (having been  ideally taught about this in the post-op discharge teaching)  is for the patient to start pressing around the edges of the wound 4-6 times a day to press out the fluid so that it does not accumulate and the tissues inside dry and heal. This usually prevents the need to use a needle to aspirate the fluid after it builds up - which is both painful and can itself cause an infection.

Further, the accumulation of fluid can become infected  if allowed to sit there, which is never good. Port are infections can be very serious, require intensive antibiotics, and are a main cause of erosions that occur months and years later. Any infection around the port that is not aggressively treated can simmer inside, unknown, for many months and eventually cause an erosion. Erosions always require band removal, and they can be quite serious and occasionally cause death from peritonitis 

Much of good band care is the PREVENTION of complications and the very serious problems by very thorough education of the patient by the surgeon and his Team.

You might want to discuss all this with your surgeon, and ask him what you can do to prevent the seroma from recurring. I know you're very new at all this, but we ourselves have to take a very active and PRO-active role in learning all we can about our bands and stomachs, so we have a good chance at keeping our bands.

NO ONE cares as much about keeping our bands and stomachs safe as WE must. Lots to learn, for sure!


Sandy R