Preventing bruises after surgery
Just over three weeks ago, Gloria Satin went under the knife to correct her drooping eyelids. During her procedure, ophthalmologist Dr. William Mack removed excess skin and lifted her brow.
Like most patients, she was worried about the bruising and swelling that usually comes along with surgery. During her recovery she took several steps to try and keep it under control.
"I think the main thing with patients today, everyone is busy, nobody really has downtime, so any way we can limit bruising or swelling can benefit the patient," explained Dr. Mack.
Bruises are collections of blood that get trapped in the tissues. Beating a bruise begins days before surgery by avoiding medications and supplements that thin the blood. These include fish oil, ibuprofen and aspirin. After surgery, ice packs, limiting lifting, and often elevating the body part that's affected can help.
However, Dr. Mack adds something else. "I'm also a believer in other modalities like bromelain, which is also found in fresh pineapple, that's been shown to help with bruising, and particularly with arnica."
Arnica comes from a flower and it's extracts have been used since the 1500's, but now it's embedded in a high tech patch made by a company named Cearna. The Cearna patch uses nanotechnology where very small particles of arnica are suspended in gel pack. The gel also contains ledum. It comes from the rhododendron flower.
Dr. Mack was involved in a small study, testing the patch.
"I think it's superior because it’s applied right to the area we are treating. It's going to get better penetration," offered Mack.
So, did it work for Gloria? She took several daily pictures documenting her progress and she thinks it made a difference.
"I did everything Dr. Mack asked me to do, I took the arnica forte, I used the Cearna gel packs under my eye for bruising and for cooling, I iced my eyes for 30 minutes out of every hour for the first 48 hours," she said.
While there's no way to compare how well Gloria would have done without her patch, she's definitely seeing an unexpected benefit. "I didn't realize that out of that right eye I would be able to see better too."
A small study involving Dr. Mack, and other ophthalmologists from Miami and California, showed mixed results. Overall, they concluded the patches may help but more study needs to be done.