Thank you for your question!
You submitted a question without photos but you’re basically describing a situation
where you went to Vietnam to have Asian eyelid surgery and that you were given something
called Natri Chloride and Povidone for daily cleaning of your upper eyelids and you want
to know if there’s an alternative to Natri Chloride because it’s only sold in Vietnam
and you’re not there anymore.
So certainly I can give you some guidance on this question.
I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon and a fellowship trained oculoplastic and reconstructive
surgeon.
I specialize in, amongst several things, Asian eyelid surgery and I’ve been in practice
for over 20 years in Manhattan and Long Island.
So I think essentially you’re doctor intention was to make sure the sutures remain clean
in terms of crust and sterile or at least to be sterilized to avoid infection.
And so you were given this combination of a sodium chloride solution or sterile saline
and povidone or iodine solution to clean the incisions.
This is something different than what we do in our practice.
I basically just have our patients just wash their face normally and they apply antibiotic
ointment to the stitches and then we take the stitches out in about a week.
So essentially, if you want to follow the regimen as advised by your doctor, then finding
a sterile sodium chloride solution wherever you live surely be fairly straightforward.
You should be able to get it at a local pharmacy without a prescription.
I think option is just to find a local pharmacy and ask about this and you should be able
to get something to help keep the area clean.
I would also suggest contacting the doctor and it may be possible for you just to use
an antibiotic ointment as we do in our practice because that’s also an option to just maintain
a clean area and to help the incision heal before sutures are removed.
That is probably the simplest thing.
Natri chloride is basically sterile saline or sodium chloride.
So this question essentially is very straightforward in finding an alternative to a brand name
for something that pretty generic.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question!