What's up with my knobbly-feeling surgical wound?

July 11, 2005 12:07 AM

12 days ago I had pelvic surgery which involved a 9 cm (~3.5 inch) horizontal lower abdominal incision. The stitches were removed 6 days after the operation and the surgeon said at the time that the wound looked fine. Since some time after that appointment, when I touch the area within 1 cm of the wound I can feel fairly firm nodular areas under the skin. To anyone who has had a similar experience following surgery or knows about it, is this normal or a complication? Did it go away without treatment? Did it cause further problems?

I am still a tiny bit sore from the operation, but nothing unreasonable. The wound looks normal, it only feels weird under my fingers -- I have a long-healed appendectomy (not laproscopic) scar that does not feel at all like this. The firm areas feel exactly like the toughest bits of a person's ear in terms of firmness, and are painless. If I encounter any problems (I have been briefed by my surgeon on what red flags to look out for) I will of course see a doctor, but from a purely aesthetic perspective I don't want a knobbly-feeling scar and would be interested to hear anecdotes from other people about what happened to them, their friend, their neighbour's mother-in-law, or whoever.

posted by teem to Health & Fitness (11 answers total)

Best answer: My guess is that you're feeling sutures used to close the muscular wall of the abdomen, beneath the skin.

Some surgeons use dissolving gut for these, which goes away in a couple months, but when I used to do this sort of thing, I used 0 Prolene, which doesn't.

Nobbly scar is far superior to surgical wound hernia, which is why the lower layers of muscle have to be closed with strong stuff.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:16 AM on July 11, 2005

Some of your stitches may be internal, they dissolve after a time. (on preview maybe not,but hope so)
posted by hortense at 12:24 AM on July 11, 2005

I had laproscopic surgery last year (gallbladder removal) and had/have this. It's much better than it was and I can now only feel the "knobbly bits" under the belly-button incision, so I assume it will continue to heal as best as it can. I did find it a little gross when I first noticed it, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
posted by speranza at 12:26 AM on July 11, 2005

I had a caesarean section two weeks ago and the scar feels very similar to your description. It's probably the internal stitches and possibly internal scarring which won't go away completely. This was my second caesarean and I could still feel the internal scar from the first, which was over two years ago, very faintly.

Depending on the location of your wound, you may suffer from occasional ingrown hairs, like another ex-caesarean friend of mine. She gets ingrown hairs in the scar that are fairly painful and impossible to remove until they grow out by themselves. Don't wear anything that rubs on the scar for as long as possible, because that irritates it more.
posted by tracicle at 1:03 AM on July 11, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks everyone, it seems likely that what I'm feeling are the deeper stitches. It's a relief to know that this isn't a problem, but let's hope they'll dissolve eventually!
posted by teem at 2:13 AM on July 11, 2005

Even if the threads dissolve, the lumps might not - any scar tissue around the sutures will be permanent.
Mine (chest surgery) appear to be is permanent :-(
posted by -harlequin- at 6:19 AM on July 11, 2005

I had an inguinal hernia repaired 3 weeks ago, and the knobbiness is normal (assures my doctor). He attributed it to a build-up of scar tissue around the internal stitches, and said this would smooth out a bit over time.

And if you're feeling numbness, that's normal too . . . my nerves were cut, but grow back at about a centimeter per week.

On preview, what everyone else said.
posted by kables at 9:56 AM on July 11, 2005

MeTa
posted by grouse at 1:06 PM on July 11, 2005

Response by poster: Given roofus's comments in the MeTa thread, it would be handy to be able to un-best an answer once it's torn apart by a doctor who's likely much more experienced with the type of operation I had.

Thanks though for the personal experience answers, those were what I invited and they were reassuring and helpful.
posted by teem at 8:02 PM on July 11, 2005

Out of curiosity, why didn't you phone your own surgeon and ask him or her? If I can't help, maybe I could learn something - you could do me a favor instead and find out what the right answer was, then post it here.
posted by ikkyu2 at 9:44 PM on July 12, 2005

Response by poster: ikkyu2: If I find out the real answer I will post it here for the sake of completeness. I didn't ring the surgeon because I'm in the desert visiting my dad for a few weeks, who's a little stingy when it comes to making long-distance phone calls.
posted by teem at 8:11 AM on July 15, 2005