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Dr. Ekstrom & Dr. Bunkis enjoying the history of Louisiana

By Dr. Juris BunkisNovember 22, 2022No Comments

Still Humming……

In New Orleans, one can hear live music each and every night throughout the year! In that regard, New Orleans reminded us of Nashville, which we visited last year. New Orleans has a symphony and an opera house, you can hear country music and rock and roll – but the predominant music is jazz, brass, R&B, soul and Cajun music. New Orleans is especially known as the birthplace of jazz and jazz music can be heard emanating from many establishments throughout town. A trip to New Orleans is not complete without taking in the Preservation Jazz Hall, just off Bourbon Street. On our first evening, we walked down Frenchmen Street to take in the vibrant blocks of cafes, music clubs and restaurants, including Snug Harbor, where we had dinner and enjoyed a Herlin Riley concert – we admit, we had never heard of him but the concert was fabulous and we were surprised the next day to see mention of him multiple times in the Jazz Museum in the French Quarter.

And of course, we also ate at Mulate’s and enjoyed a lively evening of Cajun music – “Creole Music” is encompasses early folk traditions of French and Metis rural Creoles in Louisiana. The fabulous array of music available in New Orleans is only matched by the diversity of fabulous restaurants.

Surgery Spotlight: Do I need to stop smoking/vaping for surgery?
By John Compoginis, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Very few of our patients smoke these days. But if they do, “Yes” – an actively smoking individual who wants to undergo surgery presents concerns for the entire surgical team. The anesthesiologist is concerned about the quality of the lungs and heart and how well they will function; the nurse is concerned about blood pressure and potentially the level of addiction the individual has; and the surgeon is worried about post-operative wound infection and wound healing problems.

If we put aside the problems that smoking does to the lungs and heart, there are still other major issues that smoking and vaping can cause. The cause is a direct result of the chemicals found in those products. As a plastic surgeon, the most concerning is the nicotine. Nicotine can narrow and damage your smaller blood vessels throughout the body and this can lead to surgical wounds healing slowly, breaking apart, getting infected and even death of some skin.

Skin death or necrosis as we call it can take a perfectly completed operation with outstanding results into something very undesirable. In general, I like to have my patients stop all nicotine use 2 months before surgery. This includes chewing tobacco, patches and gums – as they all still contain nicotine. After surgery the patients should continue cessation of nicotine for 6-8 weeks while their incisions are healing.

We want to have the best outcome when performing elective, cosmetic surgery and this starts by minimizing risk factors that we can control. Nicotine cessation is definitely a must!

If you want to see if you can have any part of your body improved, contact us for a consultation:

For CA, please call 949-888-9700 or visit www.orangecountyplasticsurgery.com
Or for MA location, call 508-755-4825 or visit www.salisburyps.com
You can write to
Dr. Compoginis at compoginis@ocps.com
Dr. Bunkis at bunkis@ocps.com
or Dr. Ekstrom at mds@salisburyps.com