Is 7 Hours Under General Anesthesia Standard For Combination Procedures?

   I typically perform upper and lower eyelid surgery, facial fat grafting, and full face and neck lift in about 3 or 3.5 hours.  However, some of the best plastic surgeons with the best results take 6 hours just for the facelift.  I think most plastic surgeons would agree that 6 hours for facial surgery is not unreasonable.  What is the difference between 6 hrs and 7 hrs of general anesthesia?  This may not be unreasonable.  Kenneth Hughes, MD Los Angeles, CA

7 hours of anesthesia for comprehensive facial rejuvenation is safe and is not unusual. I do agree with my colleagues that seven hours for the procedures you've described is on the longer end of the expected time to complete the procedure. However, every surgeon has their own technique and time estimates vary. Further, these are only estimates and most surgeons will round up the time as opposed to round down the time. Most importantly, that amount of time under anesthesia is neither unusual nor unsafe. I hope this is helpful.Stephen Weber MD, FACS

As long as you are in good health and cleared for surgery by your physician, it is ok to have all of these procedures performed at the same time.  Depending on the patient's age, I will normally recommend the following prior to having any surgery, especially one with multiple procedures:

1) Full physical exam by a board certified physician
2) Complete cardiovascular work-up
3) Stress test performed by board certified cardiologist (Usually for older patients)

 

I would recommend communicating any concerns you have to your surgeon prior to having any procedures performed.  This will ensure you are comfortable and worry-free prior to your surgery. Thanks and I hope this helps!

If you’re going to have prolonged operative procedures usually one shouldn’t do an outpatient procedure if it is longer than 4-6 hours. It also depends on your health status. Any longer than that, you should probably do less combination procedures or consider doing surgeries in a hospital for patient safety.

If you ask this question to 10 surgeons, they will give you 10 different answers depending on their preference and their practices.

General anesthesia for 7 hours should be just fine. Our anesthesia safety has improved over the years. Obviously there are no guarantees in any medical procedure. The longer you are "under", the longer your recovery will be in terms of recovery from the anesthesia, in terms of nausea, etc, but the safety will more than likely be fine, if you are a health individual. If you have a cardiac history, this will certainly be a factor.