Liver Resection - now what?

[sanderdl]

Had the right lobe (the large one) of my liver, plus my gallbladder removed. Other than the obvious issue of waiting for the incision (which covers most of my midriff) to heal, and a 90-day prohibition from lifting anything heavier than a small phonebook, does anyone have any comments on impacts on diving, returning to diving, etc?

Thanks for your input!

 

[rakkis]

I'm no surgeon (yet), but it would be impossible to close you and completely remove all air inside the cavity. Without knowing how much air is left inside, it would be difficult to even guess at the resorption time. But I doubt your doctor would recommend anything shorter than 3 months.

In addition, carrying a tank is not every-day lifting - let alone carrying one through surf or UP onto a boat. Having an incision in your abdominal muscles is no picnic. You should err on the safe side.

You should share your concern with your doctor. If he does not have background in diving, he should consult with DAN before giving you any advice.

 

[yakivet]

The big question is whether or not you're going to need more.....or less weight to get you submerged. You'll have to let us know.

 

[TSandM]

Not knowing why your liver was resected, it's hard to know what to say, but I can tell you that the liver has enormous regenerative capacity, and assuming the remaining liver was healthy, you should with time have essentially normal liver function.

Reabsorption of abdominal air post op will occur within a week or so, and is not a concern after that.

Liver resection is generally done through a chevron incision in the upper abdomen which cuts through both rectus muscles, and my guess is that it will be 3 to six months before you are comfortable lifting anything as heavy as scuba tanks. You don't want to push it; an incisional hernia is no fun. In addition, there is often significant blood loss incurred with a liver resection, and transfusions are often necessary. Transfused blood doesn't last as long as native blood, so you may go through a period of mild anemia as your own bone marrow is catching up.

I guess what I'm saying is I would guess you are looking at anywhere between three and six months before you are feeling mobile and strong and have the stamina you had preop. And all of that is assuming you were in good shape preop, and that the condition for which you had the resection is cured.

 

[sanderdl]

I hadn't thought about a bouyancy change - I'll take a look once I get back diving, since I have logged my exposure protection, gear and lead consistently since I started diving. If you don't hear back from me on that, assume no change.

Well, I am now 4 weeks post-op and feeliing much better, especially in the last 3 days. I have the chevron incision through all the ab muscles - I look as though a Mercedes-Benz ran into me - but didn't have to have transfusions (they had reserved 4 units of blood for me).

The post-op instructions say no lifting for 3 months of anything heavier than a large purse. Since I figure the scuba gear I use for temperate water beach dives weighs closer to 50 -70 pounds, depending, I wasn't sure how long the FULL recovery will take.

I was fairly good shape before the surgery, except for overweight. The week prior to surgery I was doing a non-contact tae dwon do workout that included 50-plus sit-ups and 20 push-ups, and I could keep up with most of the black belts, so my abs had a good baseline. One or two days after the surgery, they sent a physcial therapist around to get me up and walking, and she seemed surprised and impressed at my ability to get up from the hospital bed and do laps, albeit very slowly, around the floor. So, my recovery is doing well in that area. Now that I am home from the hospital, I'm taking a couple of walks around the (very flat) neighborhood for a little bit further every day. I am not happy with my performance with the spironometer yet, and deep breaths are still uncomfortable. In the last four days, I have recovered the ability to inhale deeply enough to yawn comfortably, but not to sneeze properly. So, I'm making progress daily, and am happy with that.

Resection was for removal of 2 tennis-ball sized masses and one smaller one, all of which turned out to be non-malignant. Yippee!

 

[DennisW]

Glad to hear you are doing well and the masses were non-malignant. Take your time, pay attention to the doctors, and you will be good to go in no time. I had thoracic surgery in 1994. I was diving again in about 6 months. I had to sit out some dives, and I wasn't happy about that, but everything turned out for the best.

 

[TSandM]

I wouldn't expect any buoyancy change. The liver will regenerate to almost its original mass.

Glad to hear the masses were benign. In six months, you should be pretty much good as new.

 

[Wildcard]

The big question is whether or not you're going to need more.....or less weight to get you submerged. You'll have to let us know.

Gonna have to call BS on this and your claim to be a Doc.....In no way could/would this effect bouyancy...Think about it.