Time In Hospital

Two days is the usual time to spend in hospital. Hospitals visited are Delmar Private (Mondays) and Castlecrag Private (Fridays. Theatre staff photo). Admission is on the day of surgery and you go home on the second day. Nasal packs are removed before going home.

Some patients may stay only one day and night and remove the packs themselves on the second day. Patients who have no hospital insurance may be interested in this arrangement. It is possible because advances in nasal packing usually make removal of the pack easy, painless and bloodless! The packing is derived from seaweed and it becomes quite soft and slippery over time.

It is advisable to stay the night after surgery because general anaesthesia is used. Many cosmetic operations on other parts of the body can be done in hospital under local anaesthetic with sedation. This is often not suitable for nasal surgery because blood runs to the back of the nose during the operation. You need to be either wide awake to cope with the blood or under general anaesthetic with a cuffed tube to protect the airway.

Some nasal surgery can be done under local anaesthetic alone, that is, with no sedation. This is usually for more minor procedures but some patients do have full septo-rhinoplasty surgery this way. This surgery is done in the office operating theatre saving the expense of hospital, particularly appealing if you have no private health insurance.

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