💎 Plastic / Reconstructive Aftercare
Mohs Reconstruction Aftercare Instructions
A day-by-day recovery guide for mohs reconstruction: what to expect, how to care for yourself, and when to call. Free to read and print.
Typical recovery: about 60 daysPlastic / Reconstructive
What to expect
Your Closure Determines Your Care
- •Stitches, Steri-Strips, skin glue, skin grafts, flaps, bolsters, and open wounds do not use one interchangeable wound-care routine.
- •Your reconstruction team's written instructions are the source of truth for dressing removal, cleaning, ointment, showering, and follow-up.
Your Site and Anesthesia Determine Restrictions
- •Driving, help at home, elevation, cold compresses, and activity limits depend on the anesthesia, surgical site, dressing, and reconstruction method.
- •Contact your reconstruction team when the written plan does not match what you see at the wound or dressing.
Mohs Reconstruction recovery, day by day
Day 0
Protect the Dressing
- Use the exact dressing and wound-care instructions from your reconstruction team. Care differs for stitches, Steri-Strips, skin glue, a skin graft, a flap, a bolster, and a wound left open to heal.
- Keep the initial pressure dressing clean, dry, and in place until the removal time your team gave you. Do not loosen or replace it unless they told you how.
- If blood comes through the dressing, follow your team's pressure instructions and call if the bleeding does not stop. Do not remove the dressing just to inspect the wound.
Driving and Help at Home
- If you received only local anesthesia, drive only when your clinic says it is safe and the dressing, swelling, and surgical site do not affect your vision or movement.
- If you received sedation or general anesthesia, or if the dressing affects your vision, do not drive. Use the adult escort and home-support plan from your surgical team.
Position and Swelling
- For reconstruction on the face, scalp, or neck, keep your head elevated on two or three pillows unless your team gave you a different position.
- For reconstruction elsewhere, elevate the treated area only when your team instructed you to do so.
- Use a cold compress only when your team approved it and explained where to place it so the dressing, flap, or graft is protected.
Days 1-2
Follow the Instructions for Your Closure
- If Steri-Strips cover the wound, leave them in place and do not put ointment under them unless your team told you to.
- If you have visible stitches or a wound left open to heal, clean it and apply ointment only on the schedule and with the products your team approved.
- If you have a graft, flap, or bolster, do not lift, remove, or disturb it. Keep it dry and follow the separate donor-site instructions if you have one.
Protect Healing Tissue
- Rest and avoid bending, straining, heavy lifting, and strenuous exercise for the period your team gave you.
- Do not swim, soak the wound, shave over it, apply makeup, or use skin products there until your team says it is safe.
- Take only the pain medicine your procedure team or prescribing clinician approved. Contact them before changing a prescription or adding an over-the-counter medicine.
Days 3-14
Wound and Closure Check
- Keep every scheduled wound, suture, bolster, flap, or graft check. Your team will decide when dressings and surface stitches can be removed.
- Bruising and swelling can occur, especially around the eyes, but they should improve rather than become more intense.
- Do not start scar massage, silicone, or other scar products until the wound is fully closed and your team clears them for this site and closure.
Days 15-60
Long-Term Skin and Scar Care
- Continue scar care only on the schedule your reconstruction team approved.
- Protect the healed site from direct sun and use the sun-protection plan your clinic recommended.
- Keep your dermatology follow-up plan for skin checks and contact the clinic about a wound or scar change that concerns you.
When to call your provider or 911
- •Call 911 now for trouble breathing, chest pain, fainting, confusion, or swelling of the face or throat
- •Call your reconstruction team promptly for bleeding that does not stop after following their firm-pressure instructions or for rapidly expanding swelling
- •Call your reconstruction team for fever or chills, spreading redness or warmth, pus, new odor, or pain that is worsening instead of improving
- •Call your reconstruction team promptly if a flap or graft becomes unusually pale, dark, cold, or increasingly painful
- •Call your reconstruction team if the dressing becomes soaked, displaced, too tight, or wet before the planned removal time
When in doubt, call your clinic. For a medical emergency, call 911.
Recovery milestones
- Day 1
Dressing and Wound-Care Check
Confirm the exact dressing-removal and closure-care plan with your reconstruction team.
- Day 7
Closure-Specific Follow-Up
Your team checks the wound and decides when sutures, a bolster, or other closure support can be removed.
- Day 60
Ongoing Skin and Scar Review
Review healing, scar care, sun protection, and ongoing skin checks with your clinical team.
For clinics
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