Post Surgical Care

The below instructions are general instructions for Dr. Pham’s most common surgeries. He tailors care specifically to each of his patients so he will tell you after surgery any specific care that is needed.
Typically after surgery the child will have a pain block that will immediately help with post surgical pain and will continue to help for a few hours
Depending on the severity of the surgery, medications for pain control are prescribed to the patients
Usually for patient’s younger than 6 months old, only Tylenol and a numbing cream may be needed at home. Your doctor with go over specifically what is needed after surgery
For patients 6 months of age and older, Tylenol as well as ibuprofen can be used for pain, assuming the child has no kidney issues
If the surgery is involved, or if the child is older than 1-year, than a combination of medication including narcotics will be give to the parents
Sometimes a dressing will be placed on the surgical site. Most of the time these will be removed at home, but some will be removed in the clinic. Your doctor will advise you on what needs to be done.
Most stitches that are used are dissolvable and will not need to be removed in the clinic.
Common post operative occurrences after surgery may include but are not limited to:
- Spotting of blood
- Leakage around a catheter
- Swelling at surgical site
- Fever of low grade
- Diarrhea
- Pain
- Split urinary stream
- As long as the child can eat and drink, and does not continually spike fever, than the patient should be safe to observe. However, if there are any questions or concerns at all, call the office or go to the nearest Emergency Room