The short answer
A surgical drain removes extra fluid after surgery. Your team will teach you how to empty it and record the output, and will decide when it comes out. Call right away for fever, redness, swelling, or oozing at the site.
Your surgical team will teach you how to empty the drain, keep it clean and change the dressing. Follow their exact steps.
Watch the fluid. If the amount goes up or the color changes, tell your cancer care team.
Do not pull on or bend the tubing. Keep it taped or secured so it cannot be tugged out.
Do not submerge the drain when showering. Cover it with waterproof material.
On this page
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This page is for people going home with a surgical drain after cancer surgery. It covers daily care, securing the tubing, and when to call. Your own team's instructions come first.
What the drain is doing
Drains are tubes that remove extra fluid from the body after surgery or a procedure. Common types include Jackson-Pratt (JP), Penrose and Hemovac drains. Depending on your surgery, a drain may sit near the armpit, breast, chest, abdomen, neck or head.
Emptying and tracking
Your surgeon or surgical team will tell you and your caregiver how to care for the drain. You may need to learn how to empty it, keep it clean and change the dressing around it. Ask them to show you, and ask how to record the amount. Wash your hands before you touch the drain.
Watch the fluid. If the amount goes up or the color changes, tell your cancer care team. Bring any notes you keep to your appointments.
Living with it
Do not pull on or bend the tubing. Keep it taped or secured so it cannot be tugged out of place. When you shower, do not submerge the drain. Cover it with waterproof material, and ask your team how to protect the site.
When it comes out
Your team decides when the drain comes out. Ask what they are looking for, and how long they expect it to stay in. Ask what to expect at removal and whether you may take your usual pain medicine beforehand.
When to get help sooner
Ask your team for your specific fever threshold before you go home. A common cutoff is 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).
- Call 911 or go to an emergency department if red streaks spread outward from the site, or a fever arrives with shaking chills and you feel suddenly very unwell, confused or short of breath. Do not drive yourself.
- Call your care team right away if you have a fever or chills, or the skin at the site becomes redder, more swollen, more painful or starts oozing, or the fluid turns thick, cloudy or foul smelling.
- Call your care team right away if the drain falls out or is pulled partway, or fluid leaks around the tube at the skin. If it has come out fully, cover the site with clean gauze and call rather than trying to reinsert anything.
- Call your care team within a day or two if the amount of fluid goes up, the color changes, the bulb will not stay compressed, or the drain stops draining.
Sources
Common questions
When will the drain come out?
Your surgical team decides, based on your surgery and how much fluid is draining. The sources we use do not give a single number that applies to everyone, so ask your team what they are looking for and how long they expect it to stay in.
My drain has stopped draining. What should I do?
Do not assume it is finished. Call your care team and ask. Do not squeeze or strip the tubing unless your team has shown you how.
Can I shower with a drain in?
Ask your team. The American Cancer Society says not to submerge the drain when showering and to cover it with waterproof material. Keep it taped or secured so it does not pull.
When should I call about my drain?
Call right away for a fever, any redness, swelling or oozing around the site, or if the amount or color of the fluid changes. Ask your team what temperature to call for before you go home.
Questions to ask your doctor
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Get urgent help
Fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher during chemo, severe pain, or trouble breathing: call your cancer care team right away, day or night. Call 911 for an emergency.
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Plain-language explanation of the published sources cited on this page. AI-assisted, source-checked, not clinician-reviewed.
Written by: Cancer ExplainedSources last checked: 2026-10-02 what this meansLast updated: 2026-10-02Next planned review: 2027-01-30
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Cancer Explained does not originate medical claims. Every page restates guidance already published by the National Cancer Institute, the CDC, the USPSTF and the FDA, in plain language, with the source cited so you can check the original yourself. AI does the translating and organizing; automated checks test claims, citations, clarity and safety before anything publishes, and this is translation and navigation, not clinical judgment. Nothing here is personal medical advice, and no page can account for your particular situation.
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General education — varies by person. Answers genuinely differ between people. This page explains what commonly varies and points you to your care team for your situation.
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How this page was created
Cancer Explained does not originate medical claims. Every page restates guidance already published by the National Cancer Institute, the CDC, the USPSTF and the FDA, in plain language, with the source cited so you can check the original yourself. AI does the translating and organizing; automated checks test claims, citations, clarity and safety before anything publishes, and this is translation and navigation, not clinical judgment. Nothing here is personal medical advice, and no page can account for your particular situation.
Editorial status: Source checked — This page was written with AI assistance and then compared with the sources listed on it, looking for statements those sources do not back up. That check is not a sentence-by-sentence record and can miss errors. It is not a medical review, and it does not confirm the page is complete or right for your situation.
Human medical review: not completed. Pages here are not signed off by a clinician before they publish. That is not an oversight we are quietly working around: we restate published guidance and cite it, so the authority belongs to the source rather than to us, and every page names where its claims come from — you can verify us instead of trusting us. Where a volunteer clinician has reviewed a page, their name and credentials appear on it; where no name appears, no clinician has checked it. We are glad to have reviewers and are recruiting them, and we do not hold pages back waiting for one. Use this site to understand your situation and to ask better questions of the people treating you.
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