Patient Safety....Ways to Prevent Blood Clots with Cosmetic Surgery

Amy Alderman I’m a board certified plastic surgeon in Atlanta Georgia I want to talk to you about maybe a not popular but a very important topic which are which is blood clots I was just asked to talk to our our fellow colleagues plastic surgeons at a national meeting on current recommendations on ways to prevent blood clots and our plastic surgery patients all patients should undergo a risk assessment scale it’s the caprini model that all surgeons should should use to EV valuate the risk of their patients for a blood clot and to treat them appropriately all patients should have squeezy boots or what we call STDs on their legs during surgery and early ambulation after surgery but for patients that score in a high-risk category we recommend that they be treated with a type of blood th thinner such as Lovenox which is called chemoprophylaxis for about a week after surgery I in particular even give my patients that have a tummy tuck a dose of before surgery just to be extra careful and try to protect my patients as much as possible so the bottom line is patient safety is of utmost importance to us as plastic surgeons and to all our patients including our cosmetic surgery patients if you’re considering cosmetic surgery please go to a board certified plastic surgeon and ask their surgeon about the ways they are going to protect you against blood clots thank you