The day before surgery, our resident doctors will meet with you to review the plans initiated by your attending doctor and answer any questions. You may have routine urine and blood studies, as well as a chest X-ray and ECG (electrocardiogram), at this time.
The anaesthetist will examine you and discuss the surgical anaesthetic. He or she will order medications for sedation before surgery, including sleeping medicines for the night before, if you wish.
You may be prescribed a drink to clear you bowels the day before surgery. This is to avoid contamination during surgery. You may have a regular dinner (unless special instructions are given), but nothing to eat or drink after midnight, not even water.
If you usually take important medicines (for example, heart, blood pressure, or diabetic medications) in the morning, ask your doctor whether or not you are to take them (with a sip of water) on the morning of your surgery.
The physiotherapist will teach you breathing exercises that prevent lung congestion and leg exercises that improve blood circulation while you are less active. You will be encouraged to walk soon after surgery because activity stimulates the body's return to normal function.
Your family and close friends are welcome and encouraged to visit you during visiting hours. During your surgery, they will be directed to the waiting area in the ward.
With any surgery there are risks of bleeding, infection and unusual anaesthetic reactions. You may require blood transfusions during or after radical hysterectomy.
In radical hysterectomy, there may be additional risks related to the area of the surgery. There may be damage to the organs next to the surgical site - bowel, bladder, ureters (tubes that drain urine from the kidneys to the bladder) - or to the large blood vessels and nerves. Blood clot formation, nerve damage, prolonged leg swelling and damage to the urinary tract, with resultant urine drainage through the vagina, may occur, but are rare.
