When you go into surgery, do they leave the hospital gown on if they are only operating on your lower half?

Question

So, Pangolin, does that mean that the chest (and breasts) is fully exposed while the EKG leads are placed?

Answer 1

If only your lower half is being operated, then only that part will be exposed (only the part to be operated - to be more specific) . The other parts of your trunk not operated will be entirely covered with a drape towel. For example if you are having surgery in your abdomen, the only area exposed is the part where they will work on.

Other body parts not operated on will possibly be exposed as the need arises. In general however, you need not to be concerned over "undue" exposure of your body- privacy protection is highly emphasized in the operating theaters.

Answer 2

It really depends on both the hospital and the surgeon. For example when I was nursing patients having eye surgery were able to wear hospital gowns with underwear and these remained intact throughout the procedure. Whereas at another hospital the patients who were having dental surgery were only able to wear a hospital gown - no underwear and had the tops of their gowns rolled down.

If you are having an operation soon it is always advisable to ask your surgeon.

Hope this helps,
mum2MH

Answer 3

It depends. We (the anesthesia side of the house) like to keep you as covered as possible, after we get the EKG leads on. It's hard enough to keep you warm without exposing you to the elements! Sometimes, the gown gets something (blood, betadine, urine, vomit, whatever) on it, and then we get you a fresh one.

Once you are asleep and prepped, the operative site is draped, so only the business area of surgery is exposed. We have all sorts of drapes to accomplish that, so we can expose just a belly, back, groin, knee, ankle, etc. The idea here is to keep the area as sterile as possible, and anything that hasn't been scrubbed is dirty and a potential source for infection.

Answer 4

I went in for eye surgery and my top was stripped. WHY? Not a clue, but there was a gown on me. They will leave a gown covering the part that is not being worked on. It's a new policy to limit peoples "exposure" because of past problems with it. They used to bare naked a patient no matter where the surgery was.

Answer 5

Patients who need general anesthesia are made naked. Only the unoperated part is covered with a gown,bedsheet or something.
When surgery is under local anesthesis only the operated part and the nearest surrounding part on all side is exposed through a window of dressing

Answer 6

I use to work in the operating room and yes they leave your gown on where they are not operationing. the rest of your body is covered with an opertion sheet or cloth.

Answer 7

yes they do, and you really will want whatever clothing you can get, i had surgery before and the hospital was FREEZING! they have to keep hospitals somewhere around 50 degrees to keep everything as sterilized as possible. they even have special hot blankets for you just for that reason.

Answer 8

i dont think they do