Fever after spinal bulge surgery or fat necrosis at the wound site

  The recovery of the wound should be closely monitored after the spinal bulge surgery. The wound is usually a longitudinal incision and the postoperative recovery takes two weeks. If the child is always crying, which leads to high intra-abdominal pressure and increased skin tension in the back, it will affect the speed of wound recovery. The medication needs to be changed once each in 3 days, 7 days and 14 days after the operation, because the postoperative period usually requires a week of hospitalization, so it is changed twice before discharge, and after discharge, the medication can be changed at the local hospital, and the operation can be done according to the standard of medication change for general surgery.  If the child’s lesion site skin condition is relatively good, the surgery can do internal sutures, here the patient does not need to remove stitches after surgery; if the skin of the bulge site is thin, or not flexible enough, you can only do interrupted sutures, you need to remove stitches after surgery.  If the wound appears to be oozing, on the one hand, we need to see if it is a cerebrospinal fluid leak, and on the other hand, we need to see if the skin wound is infected.  The chance of infection is usually around 5% and can be observed during hospitalization. If no infection occurs at the time of discharge, wound infections are generally less likely to occur again after discharge. Some parents think that their child’s fever is an infection, but in fact, there may be another more specific cause – necrosis of the subcutaneous fat at the wound site.  After a child’s surgery, the subcutaneous fat at the wound site has poorer blood circulation, and the blood supply to the sacrococcygeal area is already low, so it is easy for the subcutaneous fat to liquefy and necrosis to occur. At this time, the skin surface will be blackened, blistered, and even the wound will be opened. Accordingly, infection and inflammatory reaction will easily occur, thus making the child always feverish and the wound does not heal easily. If this happens, it will take longer to change the medication, even up to 2 or 3 months. If the recovery is still poor, another surgery is needed to clean the wound.  This liquefaction and necrosis of the subcutaneous fat occurs mainly within 3 to 7 days after surgery, so it is important to keep a close eye on the child’s temperature and wound condition during these days.  This article is an original work and may not be reproduced without authorization.