Medicine: After the Operation

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How soon after an operation should the patient go back to work? While there is agreement that patients should be out of bed quickly after surgery (often on the next day), doctors differ about sending them back to their normal occupations. After appendectomy, reported Philadelphia Surgeon N. Henry Moss at a Manhattan conference, doctors recommend that their civilian patients return to light work within anywhere from five to 30 days, and to heavy work within seven to 60 days. The range was even wider after repair of a groin hernia in men over 50: from seven to 84 days for light work, 20 to 180 for heavy. By contrast, patients in the Air Force zoomed back into the wild blue yonder only 13 days (average) after appendectomy, 17 days after hernia repair. Naval recruits went back to the full rigors of boot training only nine to 32 days after hernia surgery. Pro football players (Philadelphia Eagles) have returned to gridiron mauling 30 days after appendectomy with no ill effects.

After an uncomplicated hysterectomy, women take an average of seven weeks before resuming normal activities. The University of Pennsylvania's Dean (of veterinary medicine) Mark W. Allam contrasted this with the female greyhound, which, after the same operation, is back on the track within two weeks, running a half-mile at 35 m.p.h. While this is no mark for a woman to aim at, Dr. Moss suggested that quick return to full activity should be better for humans than the average present-day convalescence. Patients should not fear that their wounds will tear apart; many surgeons hold that a clean scar, normally healed, is as strong after a few days as it will ever be. Added famed Presidential Surgeon Isidor S. Ravdin: there are measurable medical benefits in getting patients up sooner. Their breathing improves faster as do metabolic processes, including the most obvious-appetite.