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Planning for surgery can be stressful and overwhelming no matter how many surgeries you’ve had. It can cause stress and anxiety and can require a lot of precautions and steps that need to be completed before the procedure takes place. At Bajaj Plastic Surgery, we make it our priority to help you feel safe and comfortable during every step of your procedure, from your consultation to your post-operative appointments.

Our experts want to help you prepare for surgery and understand what to expect to alleviate your worries. To help you accomplish a smoother recovery, our experts practice the ERAS, Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, or Rapid Recovery protocol. The more prepared you are before surgery, the easier your recovery will be.

What Is ERAS?

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, or ERAS, is a multimodal perioperative care pathway developed over 20 years ago. It’s designed to help patients undergoing surgery achieve a rapid recovery. To optimize the surgical experience for patients, ERAS involves three steps: Pre-Operative Preparation, Intra-Operative Treatments, and Post-Operative Care.

ERAs replaced traditional practices with evidence-based practices that comprehensively cover all areas of the patient’s journey through the surgical process. The key factors that can lengthen a patient’s recovery include the need for prolonged use of narcotics, failure to resume a regular diet, and extended bed rest.

Pre-Operative Preparation

Pre-operative preparation includes appropriate patient education, nutrition, and pre-treatment with prescriptions. Fortifying your body with proteins and vitamins, proper medications, and knowledge before your surgery can help you experience an easier recovery.

At the core of Rapid Recovery is preparation. You would never consider running a marathon without appropriate training, so you shouldn’t have surgery without adequate preparation either.

The first step is to understand the surgical process with pre-operative education. Most patients experience less anxiety if they know what to expect. During your consultations, be sure to ask plenty of questions and review all information provided to you to ensure you know as much as you need to before surgery.

The next step to prepare for surgery is consuming the appropriate nutrition to ensure good wound healing. Your diet should be high in protein and low in sodium to help minimize swelling after surgery. Also, taking multivitamins is important. Dr. Bajaj advises all patients to begin this process about 4 weeks before surgery.

Frequent causes of postoperative nausea and vomiting include dehydration and pain. If we help our patients block pain receptors before surgery, they will experience less pain after surgery; therefore, they will have less postoperative nausea and vomiting. So, it’s important to continue drinking plenty of fluids—water and electrolyte drinks—in the days leading up to surgery. Additionally, we will treat patients with a series of medications designed to treat pain from a multimodal approach.

These medications will include:

  • Celebrex—An anti-inflammatory medication that does not increase bleeding risks.
  • Gabapentin—A neuromodulator that is effective in managing nerve pain.
  • Tylenol—A safe and effective pain management tool.
  • Scopolamine—A patch to help treat nausea applied behind the ear on the morning of surgery.

Intra-Operative Treatment

Intra-operatively, or during your surgery, we take measures that continue to assist your recovery. These include:

  • Maintaining your body temperature—bleeding and inflammation increase when you’re cold
  • Ensuring you are well-hydrated to avoid dehydration that can cause nausea and vomiting
  • Administering appropriate medications, such as antibiotics, steroids, and Exparel

Exparel is a long-acting, local anesthetic that can keep your surgical site numb for up to 72 hours, which is typically the most painful timeframe after surgery.

Post-Operative Mobilization

After surgery, there are other components to your recovery. Over the years, we’ve discovered that the quicker patients can move and walk, the better their long-term recovery will be. Important aspects include walking independently, resuming your regular diet as soon as possible, and managing your pain with a multifaceted approach.

After surgery, walking is crucial as it decreases the risk of developing blood clots in the legs and helps keep your GI tract functioning, allowing you to get back to your regular diet quickly.

Following surgery, we will continue to treat your pain in a multimodal fashion. You will continue taking Celebrex, Gabapentin, and Tylenol. It’s important to take 2 extra-strength Tylenol every 6 hours around the clock for the first few days to maintain a steady state. Depending on your procedure, you may also be prescribed a muscle relaxant or a narcotic pain medication that should only be taken as needed.

Our Final Thoughts

Over the 20 years that ERAS has been around, we’ve learned that when we treat pain in this proactive manner, it ensures rapid recovery and minimizes the need for narcotic medications, which frequently lengthen recovery as they increase postoperative nausea and vomiting, cause constipation, and can generally make patients feel “not right.”

Since Dr. Bajaj has begun following the ERAS protocols, she has noticed that her patients have a smoother recovery. In fact, many patients tell Dr. Bajaj that the surgery wasn’t as bad as they thought it would be! Dr. Bajaj’s goal is to help you have a great recovery so that you can get back to your life quickly and efficiently.

Schedule Your Consultation at Bajaj Plastic Surgery Today

With a smooth, healthy recovery in mind, the experts at Bajaj Plastic Surgery strive to help each patient achieve their aesthetic goals to transform into the best version of themselves.

Contact Bajaj Plastic Surgery at (405) 810-8448 or complete our online form to schedule your consultation today!

Creating Outcomes That Enhance Your Natural Beauty