Links are often made between surgery and sepsis. When you undergo any type of surgical procedure, whether it is a facelift when skin is removed or repositioned, or something more serious like an appendectomy or a Cesarean section at childbirth, it traumatizes your body. As a result it becomes more vulnerable to infection as your body is not at its best after surgery. It does not matter how small or big an infection is, your resistance is at its lowest which allows sepsis to start to take over your body.
Where can an infection begin?
During surgery an incision is made to open up the layers of skin, which is then vulnerable to infection. This could further develop into sepsis. If you get pneumonia following surgery or a urinary tract infection (UTI), you could also develop sepsis.
How to monitor post surgery incisions
After, nurses and doctors will be monitoring your progress, but you can keep a check on any incisions too. If an infection is trying to develop you should alert a nurse as quickly as possible. Signs of an infection around an incision include:
- redness increasing around the incision;
- skin becoming unusually warm;
- pus or another type of fluid dripping from the incision;
- an increase in pain around the incision;
- a fever or higher than normal temperature develops;
- extreme tiredness.
Pneumonia and surgery
It is important to get active as quickly as possible following surgery because it is not uncommon for pneumonia to develop. You need to keep your lungs clear by breathing deeply as often as possible and undertaking coughing exercises. Once pneumonia develops there is always a chance sepsis could follow. If you were on a ventilator you have a greater chance of developing pneumonia.
Urinary tract infection (UTI) and sepsis
A UTI sometimes develops if you have had a tube inserted into your bladder (catheter). Depending on how long it is in place an infection could develop which should be monitored and treated to help prevent the occurrence of sepsis.
Monitoring after surgery is a key to beating sepsis
The important thing is that sepsis has to be diagnosed and treated; otherwise, you may experience septic shock or you could even face death. Even after the treatment of sepsis that has developed after surgery there could be some life altering effects like chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), fatigue, malfunctioning of key organs and even the necessity for amputations.
Unfortunately, situations arise when it is not possible to avoid sepsis. However, a high degree of cleanliness following surgery helps to prevent sepsis developing from an infection.