Suggested Questions to Ask Your Surgeon Before You Agree to a Coccygectomy

Suggested Questions to Ask Your Surgeon Before You Agree to Surgery:

You know you may need to have surgery, but you’re unsure as to the next steps or what to ask your surgeon. This is a short list of question you should ask you surgeon. Try to come up with others and please send them into us so we can post them for others to read.

1. How many coccygectomies have you performed?
2. How many were successful?
3. How do you define success? (This may be quite different from how you define it!)
4. Do you do only total (complete) coccygectomies, or do you prefer to do partial coccygectomies if only part of the coccyx is damaged? Why?
5. Do you use clamps on the hips to expose the surgery site?
6. Do you close the incision with dissolvable stitches, regular stitches, or tape?
7. What is your follow-up procedure? (Some surgeons only see the patient once after surgery to check that the wound has healed. Others ask patients to come back periodically over a number of months.)
8. Are you able to arrange for me to contact some of your previous patients, or have them contact me?