Aftercare and Complications After Cosmetic Surgery

1. What aftercare is included after cosmetic surgery?

Aftercare is part of the price of your operation, not an extra. Your written quote includes your follow-up appointments, and there is no charge to be seen again about your operation if you have a concern.

Our nursing team stays in contact with you over the first two weeks after surgery, and you will have follow-up appointments with the nurses and with your surgeon. The exact schedule depends on your operation. After breast augmentation, for example, it includes a wound check at 7 to 10 days, a surgeon review at 6 weeks and an assessment at 3 months. Further reviews at three and six months are available after any operation.

Our guide to recovery after cosmetic surgery explains what the first weeks usually feel like, and our recovery tips cover rest, wound care and getting back to normal.

2. Who do I call after surgery?

Before you go home, you are given a discharge summary with the numbers to call.

• For the first 24 hours: your surgeon’s direct number, written on your discharge summary.
• After that: our nursing team’s aftercare number, also on your discharge summary. Our clinic line, 020 7993 4849, is open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.
• If you are worried and cannot reach us: call NHS 111 ↗ for urgent advice.
• In an emergency: call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. Tell them about your operation and take your discharge summary with you if you can.

After total intravenous anaesthesia or sedation, a responsible adult needs to take you home and stay with you for 24 hours. If you live some distance away, our guide to travelling to us for surgery explains your options for staying nearby.

3. When should you call about a problem after surgery?

Some swelling, bruising, tightness and discomfort are normal in the days after an operation. Call us if you notice:

• swelling or pain on one side that is getting worse, or an area that feels hard and tight, which can be a sign of a haematoma (bleeding under the skin);
• redness spreading out from a wound, a wound that feels hot, leaks pus or smells, or a temperature of 38°C or higher, which can be signs of infection;
• a wound that starts to open (our guide to wound dehiscence explains why this happens);
• pain that your prescribed painkillers do not control;
• skin near the operation that looks dark, blue or very pale;
• pain, swelling or warmth in one calf.

Call 999 straight away if you have chest pain, sudden breathlessness or cough up blood. These can be signs of a blood clot in the lungs, which needs emergency treatment.

4. What happens if there is a complication?

Complications can happen after any operation, even when everything has been done well. Our guide to cosmetic surgery risks explains the common ones, and our clinical outcomes and patient safety page publishes how often they happen at our hospital each year.

If you have a problem, call us. Usually we will ask you to come in so your surgeon or our nursing team can examine you. Many problems, such as slow wound healing or a minor infection, are managed with dressings, medicines and closer follow-up. Some need a return to theatre. Your surgeon explains what they have found, what they recommend and what it involves before anything is done.

If a haematoma needs treatment within the first 24 hours of your operation, that treatment is included in the price of your surgery. For any other further treatment, your surgeon and patient coordinator explain before it goes ahead whether it is covered.

If you need emergency care at an NHS hospital, the NHS will treat you. Show them your discharge summary, and let us know as soon as you can so that we can support your care and see you afterwards. If you are worried about how a scar is healing, our guide to scar management after cosmetic surgery explains what helps.

5. What should you do if you are unhappy with your results?

Start by giving it time. Swelling settles gradually, and the final result of most operations cannot be judged for several months. After nose surgery it can take a year or more. What you see in the mirror at two weeks is rarely what you will see at six months.

Raise any concern at your follow-up appointment, or call us to book one sooner. Your surgeon will examine you and tell you honestly whether what you see is likely to improve as you heal. If it is not, they will talk through the options with you, which may include revision surgery. Our guide to what happens if you are not happy with your results goes into more detail.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your care, our complaints policy explains how to tell us, how long each stage takes and where you can go if you are not satisfied with our response.

6. How does our revision policy work?

Revision surgery is a further operation to adjust or correct the result of an earlier one. For our own patients, any revision is charged in line with our revision policy. Your surgeon explains it at your consultation, and its terms are part of the agreement you receive before you book, so you know before your first operation what would happen if a revision were needed.

We usually recommend waiting until swelling has fully settled before revision surgery. That is often several months, and at least 12 months after nose surgery, although we can see you sooner to assess you.

We also see patients who want revision of surgery carried out elsewhere, including revision rhinoplasty, revision facelift, revision eyelid surgery, revision labiaplasty, breast implant removal and scar revision.

7. What does the breast implant warranty cover?

The breast implants we use come with a 10-year warranty covering rupture and grade III–IV capsular contracture, where the scar tissue around an implant tightens enough to cause pain or change the shape of the breast.

You receive an implant card recording the make, model and size of your implants, and, with your consent, we send the details of your operation to the national Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry ↗, so that you can be contacted if a safety concern about a particular implant ever arises. Our clinical governance page explains this and the other checks behind the care we give.