You definitely will be swollen one week after SmartLipo. You should talk to your doctor about traveling. Every surgeon is different. If you are in a car or plane for extended periods soon after surgery, it may increase your risk of deep vein thrombosis or clots in your legs.







95 posts
30 Sep 2008
You should be fine to travel as early as two days after your smartlipo if it will be done under tumescent anesthesia only. The potential problems are persistent fluid drainage, excessive swelling and the effect of changes in barometric pressure on the body among other issues. As you may already know, the majority of significant complications of liposuction (of which Smartlipo is one type) are due to general anesthesia and not the procedure itself per se. If you're receiving general anesthesia, you should probably postpone your travel. General anesthesia does not only alter your level of consciousness but also starts to shut down the physiologic functions of the body. Under general anesthesia, one is taken to the brink of death in a controlled manner. Your body needs time to recover from that. This is one of the reasons why someone may not be an acceptable candidate for potentially life prolonging surgery when it is deemed they are a 'high risk for anethesia'. It may be incovenient to travel while you're still draining a fair amount of fluid from tumescent anesthesia. This tends to be for the first 24-36 hours. So you should be fine a week later. What swelling you may have will also have significantly subsided a week later. One may be concerned if the Smartlipo were to be in your legs. Sitting on a plane for hours would cause significant swelling and further increase the possibility of blood clots. You do have to wear your post procedure compression garment on the flight as changes in barometric pressure would cause abnormal fluid shifts in your body. You will probably be fine not to wear the one for your chin. Vanity dictates that you probably would not get away with that. Despite modern aircraft being pressurized, there are significant barometric pressure changes during a flight.