Medicine: After the Operation

How soon after an operation should the patient go back to work? While there is agreement that patients should be out of bed quickly after surgery (often on the next day), doctors differ about sending them back to their normal occupations. After appendectomy, reported Philadelphia Surgeon N. Henry Moss at a Manhattan conference, doctors recommend that their civilian patients return to light work within anywhere from five to 30 days, and to heavy work within seven to 60 days. The range was even wider after repair of a groin hernia in men over 50: from seven to 84 days for light...

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