At Memorial Hospital, we provide inpatient and outpatient surgery for adults and children. Surgery, whether elective or required, is done for a multitude of reasons. A patient may have surgery to:
- Further explore the condition for the purpose of diagnosis
- Take a biopsy of a suspicious lump
- Remove diseased tissues or organs
- Remove an obstruction
- Reposition structures to their normal position
- Redirect channels
- Transplant tissue or whole organs
- Implant mechanical or electronic devices
- Improve physical appearance
Unless it is an emergency, you and your physician may discuss surgery as a way to correct your condition upon diagnosis. This decision is based on careful evaluation of your personal medical history and subsequent medical tests, such as blood tests, x-rays, MRI, CT scan, electrocardiogram, or other laboratory work performed to determine the exact diagnosis.
Depending on the diagnosis, a patient has several surgery options:
- Optional or elective surgery: a procedure you choose to have, which may not necessarily but could be essential to continue a good quality of life. An example would be to have an unsightly mole or wart removed.
- Required surgery: a procedure which needs to be done to ensure quality of life in the future. An example would be having kidney stones removed if other forms of medication and treatments are not working. Required surgery, unlike emergency surgery, does not necessarily have to be done immediately.
- Urgent or emergency surgery: this type of surgery is done in reaction to an urgent medical condition, such as acute appendicitis.
When facing surgery, patients should expect to go through four phases:
- A surgical diagnosis is made after medical tests and evaluations reveal a condition requiring surgery.
- The preoperative management phase begins from the time surgery is decided to the point when the patient is brought to the operating room.
- The intraoperative care phase lasts from the time the patient enters the operating room to when the patient goes to the recovery room.
- The postoperative management phase lasts from entry to the recovery room until follow-up clinical evaluation.