Surgery FAQs

For the most part, yes. However, if you have diabetes, hold your medications when you are fasting prior to surgery. We will do our best to schedule your surgery earlier in the day to avoid problems with your diabetes from not eating or taking your medications.

At your pre-op appointment, we will provide you with a list of medications that may increase your risk of bleeding; these medications must be stopped prior to surgery. If you are taking NSAIDs such as ibuprofen, you need to stop these medications 10 days prior to surgery. For those patients who take Warfarin (Coumadin), we will have you undergo a protocol that may involve temporarily switching you to Lovenox or the equivalent heparin medication.

To optimize your safety and minimize medical risk factors prior to surgery, a consultation with an internal medicine specialist is a mandatory part of our preoperative protocol. While you are hospitalized after surgery, the hospital-based medicine specialist will make rounds daily. These physicians are the co-admitting physicians during your postoperative stay. For continuity of care, we prefer that they meet you ahead of your admission date so that they are familiar with your medical history and risk factors ahead of time. For surgeries occurring in the outpatient surgery center, you may ask your primary care provider to perform the pre-op medical clearance. Copies of documents such as the operative report and discharge summary will be automatically provided to your primary care doctor by our office staff.

Please bring your most updated medication list and any lab or test results that were done with your internal medicine consultation. Have a list of questions about the surgery to help focus our discussion and make the appointment flow more efficiently. The surgery consent will be completed at this visit.

At the end of your pre-op appointment, you will be given a prescription for your postoperative pain medications so that they can be filled prior to your hospital admission. That way they will be ready for you at home after your surgery.

We will assist you in setting up your appointment. Typically, we see patients 7-10 days after surgery. For patients who have anterior cervical discectomy and fusion procedures and those where staples are used for skin closure (rarely done), we see these patients 14 days after surgery.

Usually, showers are allowed within 72 hours after surgery. If the incision is not dry or still oozing, then showers should be delayed until the site is dry.  Submersion in baths, hot tubs, swimming pools, oceans, or lakes should NOT occur until cleared by your surgeon.