Most recoveries are uneventful. This guide is for the times when something is wrong.
After any operation, injectable or energy-based treatment, a small number of complications can become serious within hours. This guide of Chongqing West District Hospital explains how to tell an ordinary recovery symptom from an emergency, what the warning signs of each complication are, and what to do while help is arranged. It exists so that when something is wrong, no time is lost.
This site is patient education. It does not replace an in-person assessment, and it does not replace emergency services. With a red-flag symptom, do not wait for a scheduled appointment.
- Recognise the red flags
- Act in the first minutes
- Know who to call
- Hospital-grade emergency backup
Recognise, act, escalate — in that order
Every page in this guide follows the same three steps, because the order is what saves time when you are frightened and unsure.
Recognise
You do not have to diagnose anything. You only have to notice the trend. A symptom that is worse tonight than this morning, or worse today than yesterday, is the general signal — and each guide below names the specific signs that belong to that complication.
Act
Every guide ends with the practical steps to take while help is being arranged: how to control bleeding, what not to apply to a burn, why not to burst a blister, why not to massage a swollen calf. The red box on each page is written to be read at speed.
Escalate
Contact your treating team first. If the team cannot be reached, call the hospital main line, and for a red-flag symptom go to the nearest emergency department. Calling early is not an overreaction; it is the whole point of this guide.
The team behind this guide
This guide is written and medically reviewed inside the Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Medical Center at Chongqing West District Hospital, a tertiary general hospital. Dr. Ke He, Deputy Director and head of skin and laser aesthetics, is its medical reviewer.
Ke He, MD (何锞)
Medical Reviewer · Deputy Director
Deputy Director and head of skin and laser aesthetics; she is the medical reviewer of this guide and leads the aftercare of laser, energy-based and injectable treatment in the centre. 20+ years in laser and aesthetic dermatology.
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Tongchun Mao, MD (毛彤春)
Deputy Director · Head of Aesthetic Surgery
Deputy Director and head of aesthetic surgery; his service performs the centre's facial operations, and the surgical complications described in this guide — bleeding, haematoma and flap compromise — are recognised and managed there.
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Shaoliang Wang, MD (王韶亮)
Plastic Surgery · Center Director
Center Director and the surgical backstop of the team: complex wound repair, revision, and tertiary-hospital surgical support when a complication needs theatre-level care. 20+ years of tertiary-hospital surgery.
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Yongbo Jia, MD (贾勇波)
Dermatology · Deputy Director
Deputy Director and head of dermatology; he assesses the skin conditions that follow a procedure — infection, wound breakdown and burn injury — and manages them so that healing and scarring are protected.
View profile →Ten emergencies, described plainly
Each guide covers one complication: the warning signs, why the timing matters, what is expected and what is not, and the practical steps to take while help is arranged. The red box on each page is the emergency action list.
How to Tell an Emergency from a Normal Recovery Symptom
The general rule for telling a normal recovery symptom from a post-treatment emergency, why hesitation is the main danger, and why calling for help early is never an overreaction.
Read the guide →Vascular Occlusion After an Injectable: Minutes Matter
Vascular occlusion is the time-critical emergency of injectable treatment: its warning signs, why minutes rather than days decide the outcome, and what to do while help is arranged.
Read the guide →Infection After Surgery or an Injectable
Spreading redness, warmth, pain, discharge and fever after a procedure: how a surgical site infection announces itself, and when antibiotics taken at home are no longer enough.
Read the guide →Bleeding and Haematoma After Surgery
Some oozing after an operation is expected and some is not. How to tell the difference, how to control bleeding while help is arranged, and when a collection of blood needs to be drained.
Read the guide →Blood Clots After Surgery: DVT and Pulmonary Embolism
Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism after an operation: the signs, why immobility and long procedures raise the risk, and why the lung clot is an emergency of the first order.
Read the guide →Breathing Problems After Surgery or Sedation
Airway swelling, aspiration and shortness of breath after an operation or sedation: how breathing problems announce themselves, and why they are treated as an emergency until proved otherwise.
Read the guide →We will not tell you that nothing can go wrong
Aesthetic and reconstructive treatment is safe for the great majority of patients, and most recoveries are uneventful. We will not pretend otherwise, and we will not pretend that a complication could never happen to you. What we can do is make sure you are told, before you go home, what to watch for, how to reach us urgently, and when to go straight to an emergency department. This guide is that conversation written down. It is education, not diagnosis, and it does not replace being examined by a clinician.
Do not wait for a scheduled appointment with a red-flag symptom
If you have had a procedure and are unsure whether a symptom is ordinary, telephone your treating team. If you cannot reach them and you are worried, call the hospital main line or attend the nearest emergency department. Calling early is not an overreaction, and the pages on this site explain which signs mean now rather than later.
Part of When Something Goes Wrong — 10 sites on this topic