ABSTRACT
IMMEDIATE POSTPEEL CARE The care required for the skin and patient after an application of phenol largely depends on the formulation and the doctor’s experience.
Hospitalization or Ambulatory Peel? The first question to ask is whether or not the patient should be hospitalized. Some hospitals or cosmetic clinics like to combine a phenol peel with other treatments: surgical or medical, nutritional or cosmetic. In these cases, patients remain in the hospital, clinic, or spa for 8-15 days. Some peels require complex and repeated sessions of postpeel care that can only be given if the patient is hospitalized for 8-10 days. It is clear that hospitalization can contribute to patients’ well-being, making life easier and helping them avoid any contact with the public, friends, or relatives during the first week of-unsightly-skin regeneration. Some practitioners, for fear of the potential toxicity of phenol and the possibility of heart rhythm disorders, prefer to hospitalize patients the first night after the peel until the occlusive mask has been removed 24 hours later. This brief period of hospitalization can also be beneficial to the patient, who can be given a titrated intravenous analgesia until the morning after the peel.
