Preoperative Instructions For Breast Surgical Patients

Posted On: February 02, 2024 Author: The Office of Dr. Stuart Linder Posted In: Breast Surgery

So today I’d like to discuss a little bit about preoperative instructions for our breast surgical patients. That includes breast augmentation, breast revision, breast reconstruction, cancer patients, and any patients that are undergoing breast surgery with us. As you know, I’ve placed over 15,000 implants over the last 25 years, and so we do give all of our patients preoperative instructions, and these are just some of the more important things that patients will go over with us prior to surgery.

It’s important that the patients always have a ride to bring them both to the surgery center and bring them home, okay? Usually somebody over the age of 21, an adult, to be with them. So make sure you have somebody to bring you to the surgical facility in the morning. We tell our patients to bring a list or bring the medications that they’re currently on, ID information as well, a list of any allergies if they should have that. We have all of our patients not to eat or drink after midnight. It’s really important because we don’t want any problems with aspiration or general anesthesia. So again, these are our basic instructions, and these are what we give all of our patients for preoperative.

We ask our patients the day, at least two weeks actually, before surgery, not to drink alcohol, to stop smoking, because the risk of smoking has on the surgical results. Also, to stop many different medications, including aspirin products, dietary medications like Ozempic should be at least seven to 14 days prior to surgery, oral contraceptives such as estrogen should be terminated seven days prior to surgery due to the risk of deep venous thrombosis. Patients should not eat or drink after midnight the night before surgery. The day of surgery, again, comfortable clothing, the top should be zippered or buttoned, nothing that you pull over because we don’t want to have any bleeding or tearing when you’re lifting your arms above your shoulder.

There’s going to be a whole list of medications that we give our patients not to take. The list should also include herbal medications, which include the Gs, which are ginger, ginkoba, garlic, and so forth. Should not take those a week before surgery because they increase risk for bleeding and prevent clotting. So the list is very, very thorough and the list includes aspirin products, Advil, Motrin, Excedrin, ibuprofen, and then a list of all the other things which are alphabetized as well.

And so those are the most important things. This is a long and extensive list. The patients review that list with our manager consultant prior to the surgery, okay? This is really important that you follow these preoperative instructions because we want to make sure you get an excellent outcome and there’s no reason to have problems if you’re doing everything correct, both before, during, and after the operation.

For more information regarding breast surgery or a consultation with Dr. Stuart Linder in Beverly Hills, California, give us a call at (310) 275-4513 or contact us via email.