After the procedure, you may receive additional medication to prevent pain and nausea as the sedation wears off. Almost all of our patients are admitted overnight after the procedure to make sure that any pain is addressed with medication and to be certain that there are no post-procedure complications. You will need someone to take you home on the morning after the procedure.
Once you arrive home, you can expect to have some mild post-procedure side effects. Most of these are due to the effects of the anesthesia used during the procedure and not to the procedure itself. These include mild flu-like symptoms with a low-grade fever and muscle aches. Additional symptoms include minor discomfort at the ablation site, which can be relieved with pain medication.
Some patients may develop a “post-ablation syndrome” which is related more to a tumor being treated than to the site of treatment. This may include flu-like symptoms and fever that tends to only last 3-5 days after the procedure. This is much less severe than the post-procedure symptoms seen after therapies such as chemoembolization.
