Recovery Tips After Uterus Removal

Hello,

I am Dr Tripti Raheja, I am working as a senior consultant in Max super speciality hospital Shalimar Bagh. Today we are going to discuss a recovery after laparoscopic removal of uterus or removal of the uterus by keyhole surgery. Laparoscopic removal of the uterus is a very common procedure done for various reasons like abnormal uterus bleeding, fibroid uterus, and endometriosis etc. So this procedure is done under general anaesthesia that means you are completely put to sleep during the procedure. Modern anaesthetic agents are very short lasting and usually, you are completely fine by 24 hours after surgery. However, in first 24 hours, you may feel more sleepy than normal. In this surgery you will find 2 to 4 small scars on your abdomen, each scar will be around 0.5 to 1 cm long and they will be placed on different part of your abdomen, they are closed by stitches and they are covered by the dressing. Internally there will be stitches in the top of your vagina, the external abdominal stitches are usually removed 7 to 8 days after surgery, whereas, internal vaginal stitches are dissolvable and they dissolve on their own in few weeks. So in few days to few weeks after delivery, you may find the stitches to coming out of your vagina with vaginal discharge, so this is completely normal. Then immediately in the postoperative period, immediately after surgery, you will find a catheter or tube coming out of your urinary bladder this is put there to allow drainage of urine because you are unable to walk in first few hours after surgery. Usually, this tube or catheter is removed 24 hours after surgery. However, in some cases, it may be kept for more than 24 hours. So immediately you find a drip in your arm to provide you iv fluids since you are unable to take orally after your surgery. Once you are able to take then you will be allowed liquid diet initially followed by soft diet. Then we have a pack inside your vagina, pack is a long length of gauze, which is kept inside the vagina to reduce the chance of bleeding and if the bag is packed it is removed before your discharge, you will also have pain and discomfort in the lower part of your abdomen for few days for lying surgery you will require a painkiller medicine medication, initially injection and tablets to control this pain and you may also have a shoulder pain following the surgery. It is very common to have shoulder pain after laparoscopic surgery in this pain subsides on its own. To reduce the formation of blood clots you will be advised by the physiotherapist to move as early as possible and as much as possible following surgery. Even when you are resting you will be advised to do some exercises by the physiotherapist. Usual length of staying in hospital is 2 to 4 days, you are usefully admitted on the day of surgery and kept for around 48 hours after the surgery once you are discharged you may also notice some bleeding or spot through vagina this bleeding can be Red or brown in colour the small amount of bleeding is absolutely normal. It goes away in 1-2 week of time however I would like to tell you about some red flags signs for which you are supposed to consult your doctor these signs are high fever associated with gels or if you have burning sensation or changing sensation by passing urine which can indicate urine urinary tract infection if there is some redness or pain in the excessive pain in the skin around the stitches or it increases pain or distinction of abdomen or if there is Red Hot swollen leg which can indicate some blood clot formation so in the end I would like to say it is a very commonly performed procedure and it’s a quiet safe procedure. If we compare it by with open removal of the uterus in which a long cut is given on the abdomen to remove uterus the recovery is comparatively very smooth and very fast. So it is very well accepted procedure by the patient.

If you want to consult with me further you can contact me by Lybrate you can have a desk consultation or you can come to me at my clinic in Vijay Nagar North Delhi. Thank you.