General or Local Anesthesia for Liposuction?

                  Tumescent
liposuction represents a significant advance in the management of localized fat
collections.  When this techniques
is utilized with local anesthesia alone the response varies from patient to patient.  The majority of patients appear to do
well and have good results especially when smaller amounts of fat are
removed.  Unfortunately, we
frequently see patients who have had significant pain and discomfort during the
injection process when local anesthesia is used alone.

                  For
this reason, many surgeons supplement local anesthesia with I.V. sedation or
general anesthesia to minimize pain and discomfort during the procedure.  When utilizing this approach patients
can have more fat removed and avoid multiple procedures.  The procedure is more comfortable and
avoids break through pain which can occasionally occur with local anesthesia
alone.

                  It’s
important to realize that all surgical procedures and anesthetic techniques
have risks.  This is true whether
local anesthesia, I.V. sedation or general anesthesia are utilized.  Most surgeons who perform tumescent
liposuction agree that the anesthetic technique utilized is less important than
the use of a certified operating room and the presence of an anesthesiologist.  In other words, you don’t want your
surgeon to be your anesthesiologist.

For areas that can be treated either way, it probably comes down to patient and surgeon preferences.  For larger areas, general anesthesia is probably better, as deeper anesthesia can be administered and monitored and  better fluid resuscitation can be achieved.  Importantly, if the patient is more comfortable better cross tunneling and gathering of treatment areas can be done to give better results when larger areas are treated or greater volumes are removed  Some of the worst results I have ever seen with liposuction happened when too large a procedure was attempted under inadequate anesthesia, or by relatively inexperienced non-plastic surgeons/practitioners.  There are limits, and an experienced plastic surgery team is very important in either instance.  

You can perform local tumescence anesthesia if your planning to liposuction 1-2 areas.  You don't want to be too aggressive in the outer thigh to prevent contour irregularities. Choose a board certified Plastic Surgeon