Long time listener, first time caller. Less that 24 hrs from surgery.

I've had several abdominal surgeries and radical nephrectomy and NEVER a drain. Not sure why they choose to and why they don't use one.

Hmmm..

Jan

That is such good news that I'm going to say something that I've never said before. I think that if anyone has ever been able to just forget this has ever happened it's you.  You have presented nothing but good vibes in your posts. If there is such as thing as Karma, it surrounds the both of you. Make certain you have timely follow ups including scans. You'll have routine blood work done. Your health will be justly qualified for close monitoring. That means it is unlikely that any disease or metabolic dysfunction will ever sneak up on you again. Keep it as another positive thought. There is no use for worries.

foxhd said:

I think it is safe to say that there is no surgical rule for using drains. Everything is dependent upon what, where, why, surgery is being done. Some tissues need vascular tie offs, some prone to bleeding. Lymph drainage, surgical bed hemmorrage are more factors. It's easy to see that someones lungs may be prone to filling with fluids leading to things like pnuemonia and congested heart failure. Medicines may be contraindicated so a drain is a good idea. And it works immediately.

I didn't have drains in gall bladder, kidney, or multiple other procedures. Aspiration doesn't count. But I bet I could have used one after nephrectomy.

Kat, if you read this, In your experience, do you often see large hematomas in surgical beds during scans? I think mine was there at least a year.

Hey Fox! Just saw this, sorry about that, must have missed it the first time reading. We actually do see hematomas and fluid collections quite often and they stick around for quite sometime. The biggest culprit for this is actually gallbladder! For a such a small organ, it gets residual serous fluid and occasionally leaking bile that accumulates in the gallbladder fossa and tends to just hang out there and slowly get reabsorbed by the body. 

Drains, in my experience are less likely with a total organ removal, and more likely for repairs (a partial neph could fall into this category). This is due to the fact that with total organ removals the vessels are usually easily seen and accessed but with repairs the vascularity, tubules, and ducts are at a more micro level and can leak. Of course patient condition, surgical site trauma, and other things are taken into account also.