Information to Patients who are about to have surgery in Dr Marianne Duvenage Rooms:

When you arrive for your scheduled appointment for surgery under local anaesthesia, you will not be charged for a consultation, only for the procedure!

Before the Surgery:

• Please have a decent breakfast the morning of the procedure.
• Try and wear comfortable loose clothing which can be washed afterwards.
• Most people can return to work afterwards, except where many lesions were removed. Please ask doctor for sick note for your employer or school.
• Make sure that you know for how long doctor wanted the appointment, e.g. Thirty minutes or one hour. Failure to specify this to the secretary, may lead to insufficient time being allocated for the procedure, which means that the procedure will have to be rescheduled, at everyone's inconvenience.

• If you are bringing a child for surgery, please ask about EMLA-patches or cream – this can be applied two hours before the procedure to reduce the pain of the injection. Unfortunately the EMLA alone does not give total anaesthesia, so an injection is still necessary.
• If you are reporting for surgery on the face, please remove all make-up before you arrive.
• If you have ever had a bad reaction or experience to local anaesthesia, please inform doctor in advance.
• Should you be allergic to plasters, please inform us.

After Surgery:

• Should you feel unwell afterwards, we will offer you refreshments.
• Plan to go home (you may drive your motor vehicle) – but don’t go shopping afterwards. You will only add to discomfort and bleeding, which is inevitable in the first 24 hours. Ideally there should be no tension on any wound, but this is almost impossible to achieve. However, don’t start a heavy exercise program after the procedure.
• When doctor deems it necessary, she will ask you to come back within 24 hours for a new dressing. It is not usually necessary to re-do the wound-dressing at home within the first 24 hours. However, if wound moisture (i.e. blood) should drain through the dressing and you cannot control it, please feel free to call doctor at home on (012) 460 2079. The Opsite plasters, though, will contain the blood inside the dressing and need only to be changed the next day. Don’t be concerned if the wound dressing looks heavily soiled – this is normal.
• If doctor hasn’t scheduled a wound-care appointment for you, you will be required to remove the wound dressing, usually after 24 hours if it is heavily soiled. If it is an Opsite plaster (which doctor will point out to you), it can stay in place for a maximum of five days, within which time it needs to be removed.
• When any plaster is removed, please do not clean the wound with Dettol or Savlon or Mercurochrome. This only kills the cells doing their bit to heal the wound. At most the wound can be cleaned with water, where after a topical antibiotic, e.g. Bactroban, Polysporin or Fucidin should be applied. Thereafter the wound should be covered again. Doctor will supply you with the Opsite plasters or otherwise you can buy Elastoplast Aqua Protect plasters at Clicks or your chemist.
• Covered wounds always heal better that open ones. Contrary to popular belief – wounds to not have to breathe – it receives oxygen from the blood, not the air around us!
• Removal of stitches is quite painless, unless a continuous subcutaneous stitch was put in. Removal of this is uncomfortable, but only for a moment.
• After removal of stitches, it is sometimes necessary to keep the wound covered for a day or two. Doctor will advise you on whether this is necessary.