After thermal or cryoablation

Thermal or cryoablation is a procedure to treat a tumour without surgery by burning or freezing the tumour cells.

What happens after the procedure

After your ablation procedure, you stay in the recovery room until your ward nurse collects you. Depending on how quickly you recover from the sedation, you need to stay in bed for 2 to 4 hours.

While you recover, we:

• monitor your blood pressure and pulse regularly
• give you pain medicine if you have mild pain in your tummy (abdominal pain)

You can eat and drink as usual, or as your nurse has instructed.    

If you have a general anaesthetic

If you have a general anaesthetic, the anaesthetic doctor (anaesthetist) stops giving you anaesthetic medicine at the end of the procedure. You then start to wake up.

When we are confident that you are recovering as expected, we take you to the recovery room. Most people regain consciousness in the recovery room, where the nurses monitor you while you wake up fully.

If you are in pain or feel sick, it is important to tell the nurses. They can then give you treatment for this.

We give you oxygen through a plastic mask that covers your nose and mouth.

When the recovery nurses are satisfied that you have recovered from your anaesthetic, we take you back to the ward. We explain when you can eat and drink.

How long you need to stay in hospital

You can usually leave the hospital on the day after your procedure. Before you go home, you need to have a follow-up CT scan. This is to:

• confirm the immediate success of your treatment
• make sure that you do not have any complications

In a rare where you have complications that need to be treated, your stay in hospital may be longer.

When you go home

Before you leave hospital, your nurse explains how to look after yourself at home.

We give you painkillers to take home and recommend that you rest. Each person needs a different amount of time to recover and your nurse can give you more specific advice.

If you have any concerning symptoms

Your temperature may be slightly high after the procedure. This is caused by the cells in the tumour dying and lasts for up to 7 days.

Follow-up appointments

You need to come back to the hospital for regular CT scans. We can then check that:

• the treatment has worked
• the cancer has not returned

We also need to see you regularly in the outpatient ablation clinic to review your health. Your doctor or clinical nurse specialist can give you more information about this.