Is It More Risky to Have Abdominal Liposuction During Breast Reduction Surgery Under General Anesthesia?

I know lipsuciton is easily performed with miminal risks ans complications while under local anesthesia. I am having breast reduction surgery and my surgeon says he can combine the liposuciton during the same surgery. Does this increase my risk of a complication because the liposuction will be performed while under general anesthesia? Should I have the procedures done at different times?

Tags:

Comment on this

12 Doctor Answers | Asked by mac121 in NY

Doctor Answers (12)
Community Comments (0)

There are added risks to doing liposuction and breast reductions together but trust your doc's recommendation.

It is better to do them as separate surgeries but many of the docs who don't keep up with the best techniques in liposuction will still do them under general anesthesia and still get fair to somewhat decent results. Get a few consultations and then pick the doc you trust the most to give you the best results. You don't want to end up with perky breasts and an ugly stomach. Sincerely, David Hansen,MD

David Hansen, MD

19 reviews

Beverly Hills Dermatologic Surgeon

www.DrDavidHansen.com

Breast reduction and liposuction

Performing liposuction and breast reduction at the same time is generally safe. However any prolonged procedure under general anesthesia can be associated with a higher risk of venous thrombosis.

Otto Joseph Placik, MD

33 reviews

Chicago Plastic Surgeon

Cosmetic Surgery Under Local Anesthesia

Your health, the techniques used, the size of the reduction, and fat removed, decide if you are a good candidate. Each patient has to be evaluated individually. If you are healthy with a normal blood count (not anemic), and the liposuction is less than 5 liters. I would consider doing both procedures at the same time under general anesthesia. Under general anesthesia much less local anesthesia is used and thus becomes the safer way to go. Definitely not with local... more

Increased Risk

Undergoing multiple procedures under general anesthesia increases your risk. You might consider having your breast surgery first and then having liposuction performed. The safest way of performing liposuction has been proven to be tumescent liposuction performed with local anesthesia. This eliminates the risks associated with general anesthesia.

Combined procedures

Liposuction can be safely performed under both general and local anesthesia. Since you will already be under anesthesia for your breast surgery, this is an ideal opportunity to perform an additional procedure as long as it does not lengthen the procedure time significantly. In general, combined procedures have the benefit of reducing cost and isolating recovery time to one period rather than two. If your surgeon is well trained, this is a perfectly acceptable combined... more

Liposuction and breast reduction together

I think if you are healthy it is perfectly fine to have a breast reduction and liposuction performed at the same time. As for anesthesia, i think that patients are more comfortable under general.

Steven Wallach, MD

12 reviews

Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

Safety of breast surgery and liposuction

With general anesthesia the safety of having both liposuction and breast surgery diminishes as the length of the procedures increase beyond six or more hours. Abdominal surgery such as a tummy tuck and liposuction may be more risky even under these hours of duration as there may be an increased risk of a fat embolus. See a board-certified plastic surgeon in consultation to ask this question.

Abdominal Liposuction During Breast Reduction Surgery Under General Anesthesia

I think you are mistaken in your statement that it is safer to do ANY larger area of liposuction under local anesthesia than a light general anesthesia. In most cases larger surface areas require more local infused causing the possibility of an overdose of lidocaine that can cause seizures and even death (occurred in Ft. Lauderdale Florida 1 year ago). I frequently combine these 2 operations without any increased risks. It is a personal decision of the patient if they should have 2... more

Liposuction and General Anesthesia

The simple answer is you can have both done at same time under general anesthesia. General anesthesia does not independently increase the risk for liposuction. Poor outcomes with liposuction occur from inadequate technique and lack of recognition of complications as well inadequate management of complications. Please give pause that general anesthesia is used across this country and the world daily safely and effectively for patients that have extremely complex medical... more

All surgical risk is relative.

Recent studies in the plastic surgery literature have attempted to answer this question. There is a study as recent as 2009 that looked at complication rates for thousands of patients having breast surgery and abdominoplasty with a large number of patients. Unfortunately that study did not look at those having combination surgery which is really the question you are asking. A much smaller study published by Grant Stevens and co-workers and also published in 2009 looked at... more