Can you die from an awake BBL or is not as risky as general anesthesia?

Although the procedure can be performed under local anesthesia, this procedure can be extraordinarily painful for the patient. You want the most dramatic transformation possible, and you do not want to be in pain. General anesthesia requires a trained anesthesiologist (I use board certified anesthesiologists) to be present at all times, and to monitor the patient closely (blood pressure, temperature, respirations, etc).
The most important point in preventing fat embolus is to keep the tip of the cannula away from larger vessels. This can only be assured by injected under the skin so that the tip can be visualized at all times.

Dear Loreliii,
general anesthesia is very safe and it is a better option for a BBL because it is a major surgery which is not suitable for local anesthesia. If you are considering a surgery, I would suggest you to consult a board-certified plastic surgeon. Only after a thorough examination you will get more information and recommendations.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

The risk that most patients worry most about for the BBL procedure is a fat embolism. This condition is not related to the type of anesthesia.

Personally I do believe it’s safer to have a BBL awake instead of under general anesthesia but the safety benefit isn’t all that significant.

The biggest advantage to keeping patients awake for a BBL is the ability to have the patient hold different positions while doing body contouring. For example I do most of my hip dip fat grafting with patients laying on their side. This gives direct exposure and has dramatically improved my results.

I also keep my patients on their side when I’m doing liposuction of the waist, love handles, under arm area etc.

In the end The choice of which surgeon you pick is the biggest and most important decision regardless of the type of anesthesia.

Fatal outcomes have come from different complications from both Liposuction and fat transfer. These include fat embolism, infections, perforation of internal organs etc.

Luckily fatal outcomes are fairly rare.

We don’t know with the current fatality is with this procedure using new safer techniques.

My best guess is that the fatality with a BBL is around one per 15,000 cases.

Statistically that’s about the same amount of risk as driving a car on a regular basis for nine months.

Best,

Mats Hagstrom MD