Q: I had breast fibroid surgery at the end of July at another hospital, and now the hard lump has been absorbed. Yesterday, I found a black spot in the incision, which is a thread on closer inspection, and the exposed part is about 2 mm. Why has it not been absorbed for almost half a year? Li Bili, Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University
A: Usually the silk thread is used for surgery, and most of this silk thread is black and non-absorbable. Usually, the silk threads will be wrapped by the tissue and become part of the body after the surgery. In only a few cases, the thread will exit the incision on its own some time after the surgery. If what you see is indeed sutures, this may be the case and we call it the body’s rejection reaction and there is no need to be nervous. Just ask your bedside doctor to remove the stitches for you. If you don’t want to remove the stitches, you can also wait for it to slowly withdraw on its own.