Meaning & use
post-op
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivebefore a nounmedical
Happening, done or needed after a surgical operation, especially during the recovery period.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: post-op care, post-op pain.
Patterns
- post-op care
- post-op recovery
The nurse explained the post-op instructions to the patient's family.
She had some post-op pain but felt better by the weekend.
Post-op checks begin an hour after the surgery ends.
noununcountableinformal
The period or hospital area for recovery after surgery.
Grammar: Usually without an or an: he is in post-op now.
Patterns
- be in post-op
- move to post-op
He was moved to post-op as soon as the operation finished.
My sister is still in post-op and cannot have visitors.
The surgeon will see her once she is out of post-op.
Common combinations
- post-op care
- Good post-op care lowers the risk of infection.
- post-op recovery
- Her post-op recovery took about six weeks.
- post-op pain
- Medication helped control his post-op pain.
- post-op check-up
- The post-op check-up is scheduled for next Tuesday.
- post-op instructions
- Follow the post-op instructions closely.
Synonyms and how they differ
- postoperative
- Postoperative is the full, formal medical word, while post-op is shorter and used mostly in speech and notes.
- after-surgery
- After-surgery is plain everyday phrasing and sounds less professional than the medical term post-op.
- recovery
- Recovery covers the whole healing process and need not follow surgery, whereas post-op is tied specifically to an operation.
Opposites
Word family
- postoperative adjective
- the full form of post-op
- pre-op adjective
- before an operation
- operation noun
- a surgical procedure
- postoperatively adverb
- after surgery
Commonly confused: post-op or pre-op?
post-op vs pre-op
Pre-op refers to the time before surgery, while post-op refers to the time after it.
Practice
A nurse says the patient is 'in post-op'. What does this mean?
Choose one answer.
Post-op means after the operation, so the patient is recovering. Waiting for surgery would be pre-op, which is why the first option is wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “post-op”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.