Has anyone had surgery while still on prednisone?

I had surgery to repair hernia while on prednisone. At the time of the surgery I had been tapering for awhile and was done to 5 mg at the time of surgery. Ask your rheumatologist what their thoughts are regarding your dosage. Good luck with your surgery!

Thank you for your update. Still waiting on surgeon but I will reach out to rheumatologist. If it is appropriate may ask you if you had regular incision type surgery or laparoscopic? I understand privacy so if you prefer not to answer I understand. I have read that the benchmark for surgery is 5 mg and one of the reasons is that prednisone can inhibit the healing process. Laparoscopic for me would be three small incisions and the healing area smaller than a regular surgery. I am trying to make an educated decision as to either reschedule surgery for a later date or go through with scheduled surgery at end August. Thank you for all your help.

I had facial surgery and was told to get down from 4 to 2.5m prednisone before he would feel comfortable doing the surgery. I made the jump down in 2 weeks with no negative ramifications at all. Glad I had to do it because I've been going down 1/2 every month for what seems like forever. Lol

I had laparoscopic -actually the surgeon used a robot arm type of deal. Three tiny incisions - no problems afterwards - ice was my best friend lol.

I delayed knee replacement surgery last summer on the advice of my rheumatologist. I was on 15 mg. prednisone at the time. I was also advised that 5 mg. is ideal, but my orthopedic surgeon was less concerned than my rheumatologist. The reason I was given was the increased risk of infection on higher prednisone; they said my surgery healing would actually be enhanced by the prednisone helping with inflammation. I had the surgery in March when I was on 5 mg. No issues at all -- the new knee is doing well. My rheumatologist also warned of a potential flare after the surgery, which did happen. My sed and c-reactive rates both rose for a couple months after surgery.

I recently had total shoulder replacement, which involved an incision. My surgeon said below 10 mg, but I didn’t feel comfortable with that so cancelled back in February. I was down to 3.5 mg when I finally had the surgery in May. No problems at all with healing. Good luck.

Hi. I had robotic hernia repair also. My surgeon and my rheumatologist wanted me at 5 mg before surgery and down 5 pounds. During surgery they give you a boost of prednisone so I was fine.

I’m having a hip replacement at the end of July. My rheumatologist gave instructions to increase to a “stress dose” of prednisone prior to the surgery to help my body deal with the surgery. I’m currently at 7.5 mg and he said not to change the dosage until the stress dose.

I had a complete hip replacement and was on 10mg. Dr was not concerned.

Same planned here. Was not happy that had to be intubated, but only way they can do the surgery laparoscopically. I do appreciate your sharing. First surgery since I was 25 (lots of years ago) and dealing with the PMR. Thanks for the info. Very thankful for the information