Benefits And Drawbacks Of Surgical Drain Management

By Aimee Schwartz


Medical interventions always use equipment and tools for performing procedures and to ensure fast recovery for the patients. These equipment are used to save lives and to make the procedure easy and safe for both the patient and the surgeon. Clinical procedures need to be really done carefully and effectively because lives rely on these.

Different surgeries or simple examinations and tests need tools as well to ensure accuracy and dependability of results. Surgical drain management systems are needed to help drain fluids and decompress excess air in the part where the surgery is done. This system has certain benefits and drawbacks.

Some of the examples include the prevention of fluid accumulation like pus, blood, fluids, and dead space or air and characterization of fluid especially if there is a detection of anastomotic leakage. This can be done in operations like plastic surgery, orthopedic procedures, chest drainage process, neurosurgery, cyst operations, catheters, and many others. The application and insertion of such drainages is done carefully by a clinical professional.

There are different types of drains. It can be active or passive, silastic or rubber, open or closed. The active ones maintain high or low suction pressures, while the passive ones have no suction and rely on pressure in the exterior and the body. Silastic is inert while rubber forms a tract. Finally, open uses a stoma bag or a drain pad while the closed uses bottles for the drains.

The system is removed only when it reaches around twenty five milliliters per day. Also, it can be totally removed by the time the wound heals. But it is also necessary to take out two centimeters a day of the drain. This gradual removal will be until they are sure that the wound will no longer cause infections. But the postoperative areas take longer which is about a week before removal.

In order to exercise palliative care, medical practitioners should pull, stop, or remove the drain carefully because this could be painful in the part of the patient. That is why they need to take pain relievers whenever possible. After the removal, the nurse will clean the part dry and will give advice on how to take care of the healing wound to avoid infection.

If the removal is not done within the required time, it could be difficult to remove. That is why there is a need to gradually remove some of the tubes. On the other hand, if the removal is done at an earlier stage even if the wound has not been totally healed, there could be infection risks.

This should not be used in operations like gastrointestinal operations. It is safer without using the systems. Otherwise, it can damage the parts because of too much mechanical pressure. There are certain guidelines that professionals need to follow regarding the use of drains.

Many lives depend on these medical operations. If there are errors in the process, it could cause deadly infections. Thus, medical practitioners have to be really true to their vows of saving lives. Palliative care should be performed.




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