Why Dr. Calabria Calls Your Pre-operative Appointment the Most Import Appointment of Your Life

Good morning. My name is Renato Calabria and I am a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. Do you know what is the most important appointment of your life? You will never guess. It’s a preoperative appointment. Especially in this era where plastic surgery has been glamorized in the media and it almost looks like you’re getting a haircut, the preoperative appointment is a crucial importance to make sure your surgery just goes through smoothly. Not only do we review the details of your surgery, but most importantly, we review the workup that has been done in order to proceed safely to your surgery.

You may think this is kind of overdone. You may complain because sometimes it’s costly, but it is for your own safety. Please remember, sometimes you take supplements. Like yesterday, we had to cancel a case, because despite the patient being very careful in preparing for surgery, she overlooked the fact she was taking some omega-3 fatty acid. Omega-3 always has an impact on the bleeding time, and if we haven’t reviewed her medical history, we would’ve gone through a facelift surgery with major bleeding and that would’ve not been beneficial to the patient.

So in the pre-op workup, we do require an internist review all the tests that we require, including EKG, chest x-ray, blood work. We take it very seriously. If one of the blood tests is off, we do repeat it. We don’t proceed with elective surgery without having those tests back there within normal limits. So make sure your plastic surgeons don’t overlook this important step of your procedure, which is where the most important decisions are made, which is in the preoperative appointment. Again, people overlook this step. Patients may complain. Sometimes it is costly to get an extra test, but we are looking out for you, for your own safety.

In 25 years of practice, I have not had a complication related to that, because we take this stuff very seriously. An example is, yesterday, we had a patient ready for a facelift surgery. She was very careful. She did all the things she had to do, but on careful questioning, she was taking some omega-3 fatty acid and she only had suspended one or two days before surgery and not 10 days like we require. Therefore, we postponed the surgery. Having overlooked that problem, we would have a serious problem of bleeding during surgery, jeopardizing healing.

Again, a preoperative appointment is not to take it lightly. Make sure your plastic surgeon goes over all these tests. Make sure he reviews the consent forms. Make sure he tells you exactly what the procedure is. Remember, an educated patient will go through surgery much better than a patient that overlooks all this detail. A good plastic surgeon is the person who also says no if there is an issue with your pre-op workup. I had to postpone surgery many times, because the pre-op workup revealed some issues that have been overlooked before. So it’s an opportunity for you, but also for us to make a decision about a procedure, which is surgery.

Plastic surgery, again, has been glamorized by the media. It has to be taken seriously. If you take it seriously, you undergo the surgery without complications. Remember, the most important appointment of your life is a pre-op appointment. Take care and talk to you soon.