Lot of effort goes in any successful shoulder surgery. Though most of the steps are usually taken during or after surgery, a few steps, which if taken before surgery, can ensure significantly better recovery. Preparing for a shoulder surgery in advance often allows you to enjoy superior results compared to those unplanned. We are going to discuss few steps you can follow before surgery to get best out of your shoulder surgery.
5 Steps Before Shoulder Surgery to Avoid Infections
(1) Inform doctor about pre-existing infections
There are times, when we have few subtle or doubtful signs of infections, just before surgery. It is in your best interest to inform the shoulder surgeon, before surgery regarding these. If identified on time, complicated things become simple. The subtle signs include slight rise of temperature, cough, cold, burning urination or feeling of unease, just to mention a few. Your shoulder surgeon would do few blood tests to confirm the doubt of infection and proceed further accordingly.
(2) Uncontrolled diabetes or thyroid
Any of such problems leaves individual immune compromised. If your surgery is planned, you should timely test your diabetes as well as thyroid status and inform your treating doctor regarding the same. If such immune compromising conditions are well controlled, during the surgery, chances of successful uncomplicated surgery increase drastically. A combined approach between your shoulder surgeon, you as well as your treating physician gives the best outcome.
(3) Smoking and alcoholism
It is best advised to stop smoking and alcohol as they are known to delay recovery and later the recovery, more are the chances of infections. They destroy cells that help prevent infections. Ideal is to stop these 1 month prior to the planned shoulder surgery. However, every day of abstinence counts.
(4) Personal hygiene
Keeping yourself clean is the most effective weapon against infection. Those these are often given importance post-surgery; these are equally important before surgery. Keeping your body, clothes as well as environment clean keeps you away from most of the infective bacteria. Washing regularly with antiseptic solutions kills most of the harmful bacteria. There is no requirement of prophylactic antibiotics at home.
(5) Avoid contact with already infected
We, in our Indian culture, are often visited and soothed by many people around us once any kind of surgery is planned. Though the intention of these is to help us, but we should be careful, not to come in direct contact of anyone who has already been infected. Most of the common cold are communicable and you get these infections just by being with those already infected. You should be careful and vigilant. Also avoid unnecessary visits to highly infectious places like hospitals.
Keeping yourself informed about such neglected but important things keeps you a step ahead in the whole process. If you have any other doubts about your shoulder surgery, you can take guidance from Dr Vijay Bang, orthopaedic shoulder surgeon based out of Ahmedabad.