Perioperative Care of Tourist-Patients

Abstract

Medical tourism is an ancient activity that was recently reactivated. It is a multidisciplinary complex matter that involves governments and private health care as well as lay people interested in facilitating this activity. The beginning of the XXI century has enabled this phenomenon and medical tourists intentionally travel from their hometown to a different countries to receive medical care. This growing international phenomenon has multiple legal, ethical, political, economic and medical facets. Minimal literature exists on this topic, including legal, ethics, cost, quality, postoperative care and complications for medical tourists. Anesthesia in these patients is a challenge that has not been properly investigated; it has many important aspects such as suitable pre-anesthetic communication, characteristics of other races with a wide range of illness and pharmacological response, physiological changes during prolonged trips like DVT/PE, the possibility of surgical-anesthesia complications and many more. Numerous questions remain unanswered and there is a need to review our anesthesia techniques.

Postoperative Analgesia in Plastic Surgery Procedures

“…On one side, these patients are extremely demanding, with little or no tolerance for complications, especially POP. A growing number are tourist patients who have traveled many hours and sometimes thousands of kilometers by train, plane, or car only to be operated in remote places, where another language is often spoken, and customs as well as food are different from their original countries [8,9]. Transgender and gender diversity patients are a steadily growing group requesting plastic surgery that requires meticulous care in a humanitarian sense, avoiding pejorative comments [10].…”

Perioperative Complications in Plastic Surgery

“…This type of patient has proliferated in plastic surgery. In our practice, we consider them a management challenge, emphasizing an effective communication that facilitates preoperative assessment, professional care, and a safe return to their place of origin [30].…”