I am currently taking Bactrim for a UTI infection and have surgery scheduled for a mini tummy tuck in 3 days. Is this safe?

Even though there are likely multitudes of confounding variables, because you are on your second round of antibiotics for the urinary tract infection in the pre-operative phase of your elective surgery, I would postpone the surgery until your UTI symptoms disappear.

Dear tsaffron,you should be healthy prior to surgery in order to reduce complications. Every plastic surgeon has his own preoperative protocol which he recommends to his patients. I would suggest you to discuss this with your plastic surgeon.Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Hello and thank you for the question. Obviously, your plastic surgeon has the final say in this, as he/she has the ultimate responsibility for your well-being. Having said that, as long as this is an uncomplicated UTI and is being adequately treated (meaning that you are on the right antibiotic regimen), it should be OK to go ahead with your surgery as planned. Your PS is your best resource. Best,

It is best to have the infection completely resolved and the antibiotic course complete before proceeding with your surgery. Your surgeon will be the one to make the final call whether or not your surgery needs to be postponed.

Your surgeon will be the one to decide if you should proceed with surgery. However, if you have been on antibiotics for at least a week and have symptoms mainly related to your bladder and no fever, no elevated white blood cell counts, etc, you probably should be fine. It would be best to wait so your body can focus on healing from surgery and not fight an infection at the same time.

It is very important to discuss important matters like this directly with your surgeon and anesthesiologist. They have their protocols and will know best what to do at this stage.  Best of luck

Someone needs to take responsibility and, sadly, neither your surgeon nor the internist is doing so.  I would not operate on anyone who has an ongoing infection requiring antibiotics and, certainly, my board certified anesthesiologist would insist on rescheduling. When physicians put their income ahead of patient wellbeing, which I see more than I would like, it is disturbing.  The absence of STDs is not a free pass. Your UTI was unresponsive to the first round of antibiotic treatment. For me, medical clearance, in writing, along with pretesting, is mandatory.

You have already chosen a surgeon and need to go with that doctor's opinions, not those of online consultants. If your surgeon can't answer a question like that then I would recommend you find another surgeon who is willing to give you appropriate care.