Tuesday, September 11, 2007

PREOPERATIVE CARE

Well following preoperative cares you should take
  1. Avoid tobacco in any form for a few days before and after the surgery. Tobacco can reduce blood flow to the skin and thereby can affect you healing process adversely.can increase the bleeding during surgery
  2. certain medications few days in advance e.g. Blood thinning agents like Aspirin or Anticoagulants etc. ; pain killers like Ibuprofen; medications for depression and vitamins; Local Scalp application of Minoxidil etc. These medication can at times may increase your blood loss
  3. Alcohol, Tea and coffee a day before to avoid more bleeding during the procedure
  4. Scalp exercise:If your scalp is tight, you can put your hands double clasped holding your skin of the back of your head and slide the skin up and down. Most people have about 1/2 inch of skin movement, those with tight scalps have less than that. With this exercise done 3-6 times a day for a few minutes at a time, your scalp laxity will go up. This in turn will allow easy closure in donor site and you can expect better donor scar.
  5. Give a good shampoo wash in the morning of the procedure
  6. Keep a large size cap with you when coming to clinic
  7. a shirt and avoid T shirt or thermal because later need putting on from the top of the head after the procedure and that may rub with the grafted site.
  8. One very important thing is to have hearty breakfast in the morning before coming to the clinic because you need stamina for 4-6 hours of procedure
  9. your vehicle only if you are not going to drive back home.
  10. If you have gray or white hair and are regularly coloring your hair color your donor site day before the procedure taking care that the part of the hair near the skin of the scalp get coloured well. This makes the graft dissection easy.