Patient education
Hematoma After Surgery: Recognising and Managing Problems
Written for someone who has had an operation and can feel a swelling that worries them. What ordinary swelling and bruising do, the findings that mean a collection needs evacuating, how it is assessed and drained, what a reopened wound restores, and who bleeds more readily.
All guides
10 guides
- Swelling and Bruising After Surgery: The Ordinary CourseNormal recovery
- When Swelling Is a Collection: Telling the DifferenceRed flags
- The Red Flags of a Hematoma: Tense, Growing and PainfulRed flags
- What to Do in the First Hours After Noticing a CollectionImmediate action
- How a Hematoma Is AssessedWork-up
- Draining a Hematoma: The Procedure and the TimingTreatment
- When the Wound Has to Be ReopenedRevision
- What Evacuation Can and Cannot RestoreLimits
- Why Some Patients Are More Prone to BleedingPrevention
- When to Seek Care Urgently, and When to Wait for ReviewTriage
Tension, not the size of the bruise, is what matters
If a swelling after surgery is tense or growing, contact your treating team and say what it feels like and whether it has changed. For a tense, growing swelling or a change in the skin over it, seek emergency care now rather than waiting for a review.