Taking Progress Photos

How to take photos after your cleft lift surgery

Before you had your operation we asked for certain specific photos as described in this link. After surgery we need similar photos, but there are some differences:

• It is important that the follow-up photos show the entire incision, and especially any areas that you are concerned about.
• In general, we would like to have photos one week post op, three weeks post op, and at the 6-8 week post op time frame. But, of course if there is anything you are concerned about, feel free to send updated photos at any time.
• If there are areas of separation or concern for infection, we may ask you to send photos more frequently at first, but then spaced apart as things start healing.
• The incision may extend closer to the anus than you can appreciate, and that is a common area for drainage, so try to include that area in the images.

If you went home soon after surgery with your drain in place, we would like you to send us photos and information about one week post-op so we can give you the go-ahead to remove the drain. The information we need is:

• How are you feeling?
• A photo of the drain output record.
• A photo of the incision.
• A photo of the fluid in the drain bulb.

The point of this is that we want to make sure the drain output is low enough that it is safe to remove the drain, and we want to make sure that there is no suggestion that an infection is developing. In either of those situations, leaving the drain in a bit longer may make a huge difference in preventing problems.

Photo specifications

• The size should be at least several hundred kilobytes, a megabyte, or more. If the image size is below 500 kb it will be hard for us to zoom into the details we need to see, and we will ask you to re-take the photos.
• The photos should be in JPG format, not HEIC or PNG, or in a ZIP file.
• Attach the images to the email, do not insert into the body.
• Do not embed the images in a Word document or PDF.
• Do not send them by Google Drive. If you do, we will ask you to re-send them as described above.

What NOT to do

• Don’t send extreme close-ups without sending a wider view. Otherwise, we can’t tell what area you are trying to demonstrate.
• Don’t send photos of drainage on gauze without additional photos showing where it is coming from. Photos of the drainage by itself are not helpful.
• Don’t send photos that are too small in size (see specifications above).

It is actually pretty amazing how much information we can get from these photos, and how they make virtual follow-up examinations possible. This allows us to perform cleft lift surgery on patients who live far from our office. But, in order to provide quality post-operative care, we need your help in obtaining the photos that we need. Hopefully, this web page explains exactly what we need to give you the care you deserve.