Is it safe to have a face lift with a cold?

Thank you for your question. If in the unfortunate circumstance that you get sick before your surgery, you may have postpone your surgery until you are better again. If you are feeling sick, I would discuss with your surgeon who may help you decide depending on your individual symptoms.

Being sick before elective surgery is usually not a good thing.  Check with your plastic surgeon to see if you need to delay.

Hello!   My concern with such illnesses after a facelift would be the increased potential for coughing, sneezing, and subsequent bleeding post-procedure. Given your imaging and labs are benign, it would be safe to proceed with a surgical procedure. In fact, there is some recent anesthesia literature demonstrating improvement of symptoms with general anesthesia for viral-type respiratory infections. Of course, your surgeon and anesthesiologist will have to make the ultimate decision to deem you safe to proceed.  Best wishes!

I get asked this all the time.  If you don't feel awful and have no fever, you can go ahead with the surgery with a mild cold.  Otherwise, hold off til you feel better.  Your surgeon will be the one who ultimately needs to advise you.

Trinanne,Thanks for your question.Because a facelift is an elective procedure, I do recommend extra caution with deciding when to proceed.If you have had a cold for that long and still have a cough, I would say any anesthesia would be of concern.Sorry, but better to wait until you are in your best condition for any cosmetic procedure.

Hello and good question. At 45 years old and healthy it does sound like are probably at the end of your cold. A clear CXR and non productive cough are good signs. It is best to keep the surgeon and anesthesiologist involved with your condition as only they will really know the extent of the procedure and its duration and recovery needed. They can gauge your condition and make the ultimate decision.  Another note, If I feel a patient is coughing or sneezing too much from a cold, it can increase the risk of bleeding in the post operative period and this would be another reason to postpone. Ultimately plastic surgery is an elective procedure and your health must come first. Best of luck!

Depends.The best decision would come from your plastic surgeon and anesthesiologist.  Typically, if a patient has a fever, a productive cough, or copious sinus discharge that is green or yellow in color the surgery should be delayed in most cases.  It really is not a matter of what anesthesia is administered but your current physical state.I hope this helps.

Hello.  Typically, having mild colds without productive cough won't have any major impact on safety.  However, many "elective" surgeries are for some functional complaint.  But if one is having cosmetic surgery, I would recommend extra caution since the last thing you want is to have a great outcome jeopardized by anesthesia complications, though rare that may be.  Why take that chance?  Furthermore, your recovery may also be needlessly exacerbated by coexisting cold and cough.  It's possible, though low risk, that coughing can increase your risk of postoperative bleeding.  If someone was scheduled for elective surgery to address a chronic condition that was adversely impacting their quality of life, I think surgery may be ok.  However, I would recommend someone reschedule a cosmetic surgery if they had a sinus infection and cough.  Hope you get well soon.

I hope that you will see your surgeon a day before surgery. He will evaluate you and decide whether it is safe to proceed with surgery.  Anesthesiologist will also evaluate you  before surgery and make decision  about your safety as well as type of anesthesia.  In order to keep you safe and decrease chances of complications your surgery may be delayed. Frequent caught after surgery, for example, may cause bleeding after face lift surgery in particular in male patients. Nose obstruction in the course of twilight anesthesia may present a problem for spontaneous breathing; oxygen content in blood may decrease and it will trigger a set of unnecessary intra-operative events that may compromise your safety and outcome of your surgery.  I am sure that your surgeon and anesthesiologist will give you the best advice based on your condition. Good luck.

Hi.. Thank you for the question... it is not safe to have a surgery soon after a cold. Anyway you should inform your PS.