Medications that must be avoided one week prior to surgery
The following prescribed or over-the-counter medications have an effect on the bleeding mechanism and could result in potential risk for adverse bleeding events during surgery. The medications include aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDS) and all aspirin compounds. These are medications your physician might prescribe for arthritis, muscle bursitis or general pain such as headaches.
Please check with your prescribing physician on all prescribed medications.
NSAID group of medications you may purchase over-the-counter:
- Advil®
- Midol®
- Ibuprofen
- Haltran®
- Nuprin®
- Aleve®
- Midrin®
- Trendar®
Various aspirin-containing compounds are as follows:
- Aspirin
- Ecotrin®
- 4way cold tablets
- Alka-Seltzer®
- Empirin®
- Momentum®
- Anacin®
- Ascriptin®
- Sine-Off®
- Bayer®
- Bufferin®
- Vanquish®
- Excedrin®
Peri-operative period for vitamins and herbal medicines:
- Based on current recommendations, the Department of Anesthesia will institute a policy that patients need to discontinue all use of vitamins and herbal medications 7 days prior to their surgery.
Patients not falling within these guidelines will have their operation rescheduled unless the surgeon declared the operation an emergency.
It’s imperative that you inform your surgeon if you are taking any of these medications. Generally one week must elapse between the last ingestion of the drug and your surgical date.
If needed you may take Tylenol®.