Postoperative

[brooke brown]

Is postoperative always spelled as 1 word or is it only spelled as 1 word when it is used as an adjective, e.g., postoperative diagnosis verses 6 days post operative.

[Yankee]

Hi Brooke

It seems to me that postoperative would also be an adjective when used with "6 days".
What's the rest of the context in your "6 days" version (i.e. the whole sentence)?
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[brooke brown]

Hi Amy,

Thank you for taking time to answer. Complete sentence reads.

Target INR 6 weeks post operative will be 2-3. (postoperative or post operative?)

Brooke

[Yankee]

I'd use one word. To me it refers to a postoperative time of six weeks -- a time that is 6 weeks after surgery. As far as I know, post (meaning after) is only a prefix and is usually directly connected to the word it modifies (postoperative) or possibly connected with a hyphen. I think the only time you might find the word post (meaning after) used alone would be in a phrase that is completely Latin.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[brooke brown]

Thank you. I am going to be typing postoperative as 1 word. Happy holidays to you.

Brooke