Would a serious operation be postponed if the patient had the cold?

[Aimsmum]

My friend is going into hospital to get surgery to remove a brain tumour in a couple of days time. I spent the day with her on Saturday and I started feeling rubbishy as the day went on, left her late that night, then developed a horrid cold that night, still suffering today.

She has already had the op cancelled a few times, and I am worried she will catch my cold and her op wont go ahead again. Just wondering if a serious op would be cancelled if the patient had a cold or if they would still go ahead? Does anyone know?

If only a cold then maybe not.

IME ops tend to be cancelled for fevers, lower respiratory infections or infected open wounds.

Hope it goes well for her.

Yes, it might be. Depends on how unwell she is with it. Better to postpone and operate when she's as well as possible. Hope she doesn't get it.

I would say yes, I have had several operations delayed due to a cold. My windpipe went into spasm and collapsed due to a cold, when I had an emergency op.

However seeing the reason for your friends op it may be considered worth the risk.

Hope all goes well.

Thanks both, she has no other problem that could be effected by a cold, asthma etc, so hopefully it would be ok and if she does get it, it wouldn't go into her chest or anything.

I really hope she doesn't get it, I would feel so guilty if she had it postponed again! As every time it gets postponed she has to wait a few months for a new date!

Crossed with you there Henry, that doesn't sound good at all. Hope you are ok now. I know some friend's children who have had routine ops cancelled due to a cold, but didn't know if it was different for children or more serious ops.

Depends. Sometimes you would, sometimes you wouldn't.

The anaesthetist involved will make a judgement call. The only time I can categorically say an operation wouldn't be cancelled is if it was to immediately save the patients life or limb (ie their leg was hanging off). Urgent operations for tumours are a bit of a grey area.