Harry Said:

Are there dangers with flying after an operation?

We Answered:

A 2 hour flight is not too long, I would imagine that you would be ok if you were able to wear pressure socks and walk around a bit during the flight.
BUT check with a doctor or ring up the Hospital medical ward for Professional advice and expertise.

Jeffrey Said:

Medical persons to answer please-Flying 12 days after keyhole surgery gallbladder removal?

We Answered:

It should be fine. Just make sure she moves her legs around on the flight. Flexing your calves during a flight is a good idea.

"POST-SURGERY CAUTIONS
Other candidates for temporary grounding include people who’ve had major surgery (cardiovascular, abdominal, etc.) and some who’ve had minor operations (oral, eye, ear, nose, or facial), including some types of outpatient surgery. Dr. Wayne J. Riley, director of Baylor Travel Medicine Service in Houston, advises against flying for at least seven to 10 days after minor procedures and at least 10 to 14 days after major surgery. If you’re planning a transcontinental or international flight, the amount of time may increase depending on your condition and recovery. "

Ken Said:

how long are you able to fly after heart bypass surgery?

We Answered:

People's recovery from bypass surgery varies widely. As a general rule of thumb, people who do well with the surgery and therefore recover more quickly are those who are otherwise healthy in every other aspect - especially kidneys and lungs.

Sometimes people are released in a week's time, but just as often they are still in ICU at one week. Indeed, I would never recommend that a cardiac patient fly very soon after a big procedure. You have virtually no support up in the air - and no easy way to get support - if something were to unexpectedly happen.

Once a month has passed and your Dad is off his water pills (lasix) to keep the fluid off of his lungs, then he is stable enough to travel, though he still will get very tired very easily.

Remember this is a big surgery. It is estimated that it will take a calendar year before you father has fully recovered from this procedure.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Sara Said:

How long until you're allowed to fly again after surgery (specifically, an appendectomy)?

We Answered:

Mixing surgery and air travel may be a recipe for increasing the risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, and until studies define the link between air travel and blood clots, surgical patients need to be advised how to decrease their risk.

In Aesthetic Surgery Journal (July-August, 2002), Alan Matarasso, M.D., cautioned that airplane travel in the period immediately before or after surgery is a factor that needs to be considered in the risk profile for surgery.

"Airline travel and surgery can potentially act synergistically to exacerbate and dramatically increase the risk of DVT/PE," said Dr. Matarasso, who has a private practice in New York and is clinical associate professor of plastic surgery, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.

"For many years there has been a thought that cramped airline seating, low oxygen, lack of movement, and dehydrating agents could contribute," said Dr. Matarasso, senior scientific editor, Aesthetic Surgery Journal.

We live in a society, where patients increasingly are able to travel great distances to find a surgeon, undergo a procedure, usually with anesthesia, and return home shortly thereafter, he added. "Consider then the relationship between a long airline flight in two directions, the inherent risk for surgery and anesthesia, and all within a short time interval and the risks of developing venous thromboembolism."

Flying-related DVT was reported as early as 1954 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Matarasso said.

Virchow's triad stays strong"In 1860, Virchow described a triad of conditions that remain valid predictors of thromboembolism disease today," said Dr. Matarasso. These factors include stasis, intimal injury, and hypercoagulability.

"So based on Virchow's triad, we saw who was at risk," Dr. Matarasso said. These risk factors include age of more than 40 years, pregnancy, female gender, female hormones, obesity, cardiac conditions, cancer, smoking, multiple fractures, certain surgical procedures and procedures longer than 30 minutes, and general anesthesia.

"The combination of airline flight and surgery may be another yet unrecognized risk factor," Dr. Matarasso said. The World Health Organization and the International Airline Transportation Assn. commissioned a long-term, ongoing epidemiological study to evaluate the risk.

"Factors that are considered to make airline flight a risk factor (and specifically greater than similar amounts of surface travel) for venous thromboembolism can be divided into three groups," he said. These include: prolonged immobilization in cramped seating; dehydration from low humidity, infrequent supply of beverages and/or dehydrating beverages; and air quality, which includes circulation of dry air, low air pressure increasing the risk of coagulation, and high altitudes that lower blood oxygen saturation to less than 85 percent.

RecommendationsDr. Matarasso has developed a set of recommendations for his patients and suggests that physicians counsel patients who are traveling in the perioperative period to do the following: perform in-seat exercises and avoid crossing the legs; hourly walks; hydration with 8-oz. of water for each hour on the plane; avoidance of dehydrating agents; wearing loose fitting, nonconstricting undergarments and clothing; and possibly even mechanical compression devices.

Pharmacologic intervention is one possibility for surgical patients, Dr. Matarasso said. "Most people who are going to bleed after surgery do so in the first two days - so perhaps we should be sending them back on their plane trip a week later with aspirin." The increased risk for blood clots after flying may be as long as 30 days.

Determining the exact etiology of venous thromboembolism is problematic due to the multiplicity of predisposing risk factors and the lengthy time frame up to which a PE can occur, Dr. Matarasso said. "However until these factors can be separated and elucidated, airline travel and surgery should now be considered in risk assessment for deep vein thrombosis."

Zachary Said:

I need to fly a day after spinal surgery (discetomy) for a funeral. Am I in serious risk? How soon can I fly?

We Answered:

Just call your doctor's office and ask whoever picks up the phone (: If they don't know the answer, they can find a doctor close by who does. Good luck and God Bless.

Raymond Said:

Flying After Bunion Surgery.?

We Answered:

That's almost a month you should be okay by then, but run it by your doctor if you're not sure. Just get up and move around and make sure you drink plenty of fluids. Here's a link with some excellent pointers on what to do, to avoid DVT in flight:
http://www.flighthealth.org/preventing-d…