Surgery

Your surgical "journey" involves many steps, which start with your consultation and end with your recovery process. Each of these is carefully managed by our professional staff to ensure your safety and wellbeing and to make your Form & Function experience a good one.

Your procedure

All procedures are performed in our state of the art facilities to ensure you receive the best possible care. Your length of time spent with us will depend on which procedure you are having, but in most cases, it will require at least a one night stay in hospital. Although it is possible to perform certain plastic and reconstructive procedures as "day cases", the Form & Function Clinic staff prefer to closely monitor your post-surgical recovery. This will ensure you achieve the best possible results from your surgery and that the appropriate equipment and staff are on hand should they be required.

After your operation

Surgery can put a major strain on the body, so it is likely you will experience some post-surgical discomfort. This is normal, but it should be dealt with properly in order to ensure your swift recovery and a successful outcome to your surgery.

Each procedure will carry different after-effects, and your surgeon will talk you through what you might expect and how to manage them. Below are some examples of commonly experienced after-effects and how to deal with them:

• Some pain at your wound site can be expected. This will eventually settle and can be managed with oral pain medication.
• You may have some bleeding from your wound. This should only last for 48 hours. If bleeding continues longer than this, please contact staff at the clinic, your GP or your closest emergency department.
• Some swelling or bruising is normal. It may appear immediately after your procedure, gradually over a 48 hour period, or not at all. It may take two to three weeks to settle down.
• To help prevent excess bleeding or swelling, try to keep the operative site higher than your heart (e.g. if your operation was on your arm, elevate your arm on two pillows while lying or sitting).

At home

After you have been discharged, you must carefully follow the instructions given to you by the clinic's medical staff. These will vary depending on your procedure, but below are some examples of what you will need to bear in mind:

• Dressings, open wounds or plaster casts will generally need to be kept dry.
• Stitches may need to be removed.
• You will likely need to attend two post-op reviews, where a clinic nurse will check the healing of the wound, remove any stitches and reapply dressings if needed. The second review will be with one of our surgeons. This will normally be several weeks after your procedure, once the initial healing process is complete.

Risks

Please keep in mind that all surgery carries some degree of uncertainty and risk. These can include:

• Possibility of infection
• Bleeding
• Blood clots
• Allergies such as adverse reactions to anaesthesia
• Scarring
• Temporary and very occasionally permanent numbness to the area which has been operated on.

To minimise these risks please follow your surgeon's advice both prior to and after your surgery. Please also note that it is important you do not smoke for at least six weeks prior to surgery as smoking increases surgical and anaesthetic risk.

Should you experience any of the following post-surgery symptoms, please contact the clinic, your GP or your closest emergency department:

• Signs of infection (heavy discharge from your wound, a high temperature, an increase in redness around the wound, or a dramatic increase in pain which is not relieved by oral pain medication)
• Increased swelling around the wound
• Nausea or vomiting which does not settle
• Numbness or tingling for more than 48 hours after your operation in an arm or leg which has a plaster of Paris.