Content Warning / Educational Disclaimer: This article post contains sensitive topics and reflects Open College UK Limited’s opinions for informational purposes only.

Exploring the high Risks of Cosmetic Surgery!

When individuals hear the word cosmetic surgery, most automatically think of elective, non-essential operations such as facelifts, breast augmentations, and Botox, to name a few. These procedures and the surgeons who perform them are glamorized and so publicly recognized that one often forgets the importance of every invasive surgical procedure. Cosmetic surgery, like any other surgery, has its own set of risks that not only include a bad personal experience but also the possibility of serious complications occurring.

Unlike other specialty fields in medicine, individuals often base their decision about undergoing cosmetic surgery on the desire to look better. These decisions are usually influenced by deceiving advertisements and photos of unreal and retouched ‘after’ results that bring along emotions such as low self-esteem, depression, and an obsession with the need for change.

Additionally, patients have the tendency to carry around with them an inflated sense of optimism and easily embrace magical thinking when it comes to cosmetic surgery because they do not truly acknowledge how congested the field is with shady practitioners and the potential complications that could arise.

It is essential for the risks of cosmetic surgery to be addressed and for patients to be made aware of possible complications if faced with such a decision. Ideally, physicians should caution patients about what distress, humiliation, and dreadful outcomes could occur as a result of cosmetic surgery in order for uneducated patients not to undergo surgery only to worsen their situation.

Optimizing Post-Operative Care and Recovery

Strategies and Best Practices!

The surgical procedure, while often the most critical part of treatment for many serious medical conditions, is only one of many stages that must be successfully negotiated to obtain good outcomes. A critical component in recovery from surgery is the post-operative period. Post-operative refers to the days or weeks following surgery. If a patient has had surgery and has been discharged from the hospital and is recovering at home, that patient is in the post-operative period.

Ideally, post-operative care is planned and organized before surgery takes place, so that detailed plans for care and management of clinical issues are developed and ready to implement once the patient is no longer under the direct care of a highly trained surgical team. Logistical support and financial considerations are part of successful post-operative care as well. Successful post-operative care is a complex multi-component collaborative effort.

It involves healthcare providers specializing in what is commonly termed ‘post-acute care,’ as well as primary care and specialty health care clinicians, the patient, and family or other care support people. The acute hospital needs to work collaboratively to ensure information is available in a timely manner to optimize the caregiving supports that are best for the individual patient.

Post-operative care, when successful, supports recruiting the reserve capacity most of us possess. Utilization of this reserve capacity helps replace medical imaging, laboratory studies, and physician examinations as valuable information sources. The absence of a clear plan and coordinated support at the time of hospital discharge does not mean the PAC or restorative care will not occur. It means these services may be provided in a poorly planned and non-optimal setting. Use of suboptimal support may limit or delay the spontaneous recovery process, and can lead to longer situations of illness and disability, and can increase overall costs of care.

When post-acute care is delivered without an individualized plan, the services provided are often fragmented with numerous transitions from facility services to home with intermittent help. People who have undergone surgery experience serious complications at a rate of approximately 13%–15% overall, and many of the complications that take place in the 30-day post-operative period after surgery are deemed avoidable.

The opportunity to avoid these complications through focused and specialized care in the right place at the right time is here – right now – and demonstrates the need to address the complexity of this care in an informed manner. Millions of people have surgery annually, with the unmet need for optimized post-operative care representing a substantial number of adults. Suboptimal care represents quality gaps that must be addressed to improve care delivery.

As value becomes the focus of stakeholders, the economics of suboptimal care may also need to be addressed. This document is our attempt to address many important issues that are known about the pitfalls of focusing inadequate resources in the post-operative period, to ensure that everyone learns about what experts know about optimizing recovery following surgery, and to suggest the next critical steps to be taken. It is organized to provide the most consistent and rich information and best-practices guidance in a digestible manner, to help individuals make informed decisions about their care.

Importance of Post-Operative Care

The process of recovery in surgery is typically prolonged and difficult. A major surgical procedure may alter the patient’s life physically, nutritionally, socially, and psychologically, as well as financially. Recovery includes restorative and rehabilitation measures to compensate for the changes in anatomy and physiology that caused the disease or condition for which surgery was performed.

The process of recovery is more than simply convalescence, convalescence meaning that period of time between the interruption of day-to-day activity and the resumption of full-time functioning. Although modern surgical procedures are designed to secure the maximum functional possibility for the patient, such procedures often call for aggressive therapy and treatment before the usefulness of the involved body parts can be fully restored. The aim then, in the rehabilitation of the postoperative patient, is to hasten the return to an acceptable level of activity.

Knowledge of the surgical procedure and an understanding of basic postoperative problems of the individual patient are fundamental. Recovery from any surgery is influenced by the patient’s previous physical and emotional status. In general, the more optimal the preoperative status, the more optimum the postoperative course.

Individual patients, of course, have their special health and personal problems in addition to the disease condition for which surgery is planned. It follows then that recovery needs to be individualized and to assure its best results, there is a requirement for special programs, special expertise, and careful follow-up.

Not all surgeries require the same approach to recovery care. The postoperative care and recovery for a patient after an appendectomy will be much different from that required by a patient with a heart transplant. These patients have various emotional and physical problems.

A conservative rather than an aggressive stance on postoperative care is generally taken. With all surgical procedures, recovery and maintenance of a state of health until a full recuperative response can be attained is the goal of all therapies. High-level function in the patient will not be possible until adaptation to any imposed disability can be surpassed.

Designing various therapeutic measures during postoperative recovery should be the goal of the rehabilitation team. Formulation of programs that promote rapid recovery should continue to be of interest not only to the medical professional but also to the patient.

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