Pre-op nurse at home wants a swab because I had surgery abroad last year. What are they testing for, and should I be worried?

#1Alan G(Joined Jun 2024 · 34 posts)October 25, 2026, 3:02 pm

Bit of a different one. I had my shoulder done in Bangkok, as some of you know, and I'm now booked for a small unrelated procedure at my local hospital next month.

At the pre-op assessment the nurse asked if I'd been a patient in a hospital abroad in the last year, I said yes, and she said they'd need a swab. From, er, the back end. She said something about resistant bacteria and CPE and that it was routine, but I was a bit thrown and didn't ask anything sensible.

Does this mean they think I picked something up? I feel completely fine.

#2bkk_bound(Joined Sep 2025 · 19 posts)October 25, 2026, 6:30 pm

Same happened to me when I went in for a scope in the spring, a few months after my hernia here. Came back negative and nobody mentioned it again. I think they do it to anyone who's been in hospital anywhere else, not just abroad.

#3Dr Helen WardMedical moderator(Joined Mar 2024 · 82 posts)October 26, 2026, 10:05 am

Alan G said:

Does this mean they think I picked something up?

No, it doesn't. bkk_bound has it right: it's routine screening, applied to people who've been hospital patients elsewhere in the UK or abroad in the last 12 months, and it's an infection control step rather than a suspicion about you or about the hospital in Bangkok.

CPE stands for carbapenemase producing Enterobacterales, which are gut bacteria that can break down carbapenems, a group of very strong antibiotics. The screen is usually a rectal swab, as you discovered. Most people who carry these bacteria have no symptoms at all, because the immune system keeps them in check; the reason hospitals look for them is that they can cause harder to treat infections if they get into a wound, the urine or the blood, and knowing in advance lets the team choose antibiotics and protect other patients. You might be kept in a side room until the result is back, depending on the hospital.

The useful thing to do is exactly what you did: tell them about the operation abroad, every time, even if nobody asks. If you have the discharge notes with any antibiotics you were given, take them along. The new guide on infection after surgery abroad covers this alongside the wound warning signs. Anything about what your own result means for your procedure is a question for the team doing it.

#4Alan G(Joined Jun 2024 · 34 posts)October 26, 2026, 12:41 pm

That's reassuring, thank you. Rather wish the nurse had said it in those words.

#5Alan G(Joined Jun 2024 · 34 posts)October 31, 2026, 9:20 am

Negative. Procedure goes ahead as planned. Posting so the next person who gets asked for a swab knows it's nothing to panic about.