My doctor didn't wait 5-10 minutes for the local anesthesia (lidocaine) to fully numb my fat pad before performing excision. Due to my extremely painful procedure, I did my research and found that the doctor must wait 5-10 mins after injection before cutting. Instead, he cut right after he injected me with lidocaine. When I told him he should've waited for the anesthesia to work properly, he tells me he doesn't need to wait. That feeling pain in this procedure is expected? He knew it would hurt.
May 8, 2016
Answer: Local anesthetic is effective immediately You do not need to wait for a local anesthetic to take effect. Waiting increases the benefit of epinephrine but is not necessary. Blepharoplasty can be performed under local anesthesia with complete comfort. Fat resection does not hurt if it's adequately injected prior to resection and it's not a function of time.
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May 8, 2016
Answer: Local anesthetic is effective immediately You do not need to wait for a local anesthetic to take effect. Waiting increases the benefit of epinephrine but is not necessary. Blepharoplasty can be performed under local anesthesia with complete comfort. Fat resection does not hurt if it's adequately injected prior to resection and it's not a function of time.
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Answer: Pain during blepharoplasty Thank you for your question. I perform some upper eyelid surgery in the office under local anesthesia only in highly selected patients. There needs to be a skin excision only or removal of skin and a small amount of fat in a healthy patient without high blood pressure or other significant medical issues. All other cases are done at a Surgery Center or Hospital with sedation or general anesthesia.The local anesthetic injected before starting the procedure is allowed to work for 10-15 minutes primarily to allow the epinephrine to work to minimize bleeding. As has been written by other surgeons, the local anesthetic works very quickly as far as eliminating pain. After the skin (and possibly a small amount of muscle) is removed, additional local anesthetic is injected in the fat to numb that area where the original local anesthetic injection did not reach. That is often a sensitive area and additional anesthetic may be needed. The surgeon who wrote " Your surgeon is wrong here and unprofessional" and suggests you report him to the Medical Board is, in my opinion, wrong and unprofessional. There are many details about your surgery that we do not know.
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Answer: Pain during blepharoplasty Thank you for your question. I perform some upper eyelid surgery in the office under local anesthesia only in highly selected patients. There needs to be a skin excision only or removal of skin and a small amount of fat in a healthy patient without high blood pressure or other significant medical issues. All other cases are done at a Surgery Center or Hospital with sedation or general anesthesia.The local anesthetic injected before starting the procedure is allowed to work for 10-15 minutes primarily to allow the epinephrine to work to minimize bleeding. As has been written by other surgeons, the local anesthetic works very quickly as far as eliminating pain. After the skin (and possibly a small amount of muscle) is removed, additional local anesthetic is injected in the fat to numb that area where the original local anesthetic injection did not reach. That is often a sensitive area and additional anesthetic may be needed. The surgeon who wrote " Your surgeon is wrong here and unprofessional" and suggests you report him to the Medical Board is, in my opinion, wrong and unprofessional. There are many details about your surgery that we do not know.
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