After the operation, a lot of patients would be anxious about the functions of the multiple drainages coming out of their bodies. Familiarizing with the functions and knowing how to care for these drainages would greatly help with the outcome of the operations.

Indication for drainage

1. Drainage: to extract excretion from the wounds.
2. Observe: to observe the amount, color, and smell of the wound extracts.

Things to keep in mind when caring for drainage

1. Observe for any obstruction, maintain smoothness of drainage.
2. Secure drainage and prevent any kinks or slippage that may result in obstruction.
3. Inform our medical staff once there is change of color and amount of drainage; normal conditions of the content inside the drainage should be lighter color progressively and the diminished amount of drainage.
4. If there is chest tube, the bottle should remain upright.
5. The position of the drainage tube is often lower than the wound.

Time of removal

Usually attending doctors would consider removing those attached drainages when the drainage amount is less than 50cc/day (chest tube), but every case is evaluated respectively.

Wound care: infection prevention is very important!

1. Pay close attention to any redness or painfulness of tissues around the wound
2. Inform your attending physicians immediately once patients suffer from fever because this is a sign of infection.

Nutrition

When regular diet is recommended by the doctor, have patients intake high calorie food like egg, fish, and meat to facilitate wound healing.

Exercise

Usually a person would feel their movement limited by the drains attached to their body, other than that, there are not limitations. The early movement helps patients with wound healing and improves drainage as long as the drain is properly secured from any pulling.