Is it safe to be under general anesthesia as a Suboxone patient?

Question

I am 30 years old, BMI 26, I believe I'm over all healthy. I am a suboxone patient for going on 2 years. I am interested in having a bbl in Mexico. I believe I can handle the pain, I'm not interested in pain medication afterwards due to my recovery. But I am worried about being put under the general anesthesia while on suboxone. Is that safe? Does that affect the general anesthesia in anyway?

Cagil Meric Erenoglu, MD · Answer

Hi, lilypadillaa320! Thank you for your question.
Your question is more topic of Anesthesiology but I want to give a brief information regarding narcotic use and BBL. 
We give non-narcotic drugs to manage pain after surgery, which can be less effective on patients that are on Suboxone treatment. You must have the through Anesthesia consultation to understand the risks and potential complications regarding general anesthesia.
General anesthesia is actually not too much different for deep sedation, and for me even safer because of the safety of the airway. The difference is you also recieve plegic medication to get your muscles relaxed in general anesthesia. So for your situation the matter is not the options of general or local+sedation but to have the surgery or not. 
I found an article that might help you more. I leave the link below.

Mats Hagstrom, MD (license on probation) · Answer

I do not recommend patients travel long distances for elective surgical procedures and I definitely do not recommend patients going to developing countries for elective surgery.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of having proper in person consultations while in advance of scheduling your surgery in order to properly vet plastic surgeons and then your case to make sure they have experience handling patients on buprenorphine.
You should not underestimate the potential postoperative pain from the procedure being done under general anesthesia without the ability to use narcotic pain medication.
The procedure can be done comfortably including recovery especially if it’s done as an awake procedure.
Doing a BBL using local anesthesia generally requires some degree of sedation.
The major advantage with doing the procedure a week is that the surgeon will be mandated to put local anesthesia in all areas treated during the procedure making your recovery relatively easy.
When the procedure is done under general anesthesia surgeons to not put a strong emphasis on correct placement of local anesthesia relying instead on the anesthesiologist including narcotic pain medication to control pain immediately after surgery.
Anesthesiologist or unfamiliar with managing patients on this medication may not have the easiest time.
In the United States most anesthesiologist at this point have managed patients on the medication and can do so successfully. There are fairly good standardized protocols for managing patients on buprenorphine in regards to anesthesia and postoperative care.
You’re far better off having the operation locally in the United States.
It’s a free world and people do what they do.
My recommendation is to have multiple in person consultations with local board-certified plastic surgeons in your community. During each consultation ask each provider to show their entire collection of before and after pictures for the procedure you’re interested in.
Ask providers to show you as many pictures as possible of previous patients who have similar body characteristics to your own.
Being shown a handful of preselected pictures which most likely represent the best results of a providers career is insufficient to get a clear understanding of what average results look like or what you can expect for your results.
For reference and experience provider should have no difficulty showing you at least 50 sets of before and after pictures for popular procedures.
Look carefully at all areas treated by Liposuction to make sure there are no contour irregularities.
Compare confirmation of exactly what areas are included with the Liposuction.
I generally recommend patients treat their entire torso when doing abdominal liposuction. By cheating the entire torso patients are left with an even a fan of natural fat distribution without transition zone between treated and untreated areas.
By cheating the entire torso patients are left with an even a fan of natural fat distribution without transition zone between treated and untreated areas. Candidacy for quality outcomes are very substantially from patient to patient.
In the end candidacy combined with the scale of the surgeon are the two only variables that determine outcomes.
Provider selection is paramount when it comes to having an overall positive experience with quality outcomes that you’ll be living with for the rest of your life.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom MD

Jose A. Munoz, MD - Account Suspended · Answer

Hi and welcome to our forum!Patients on suboxone maintenance can undergo surgery under general anesthesia. However, your surgeon and your anesthesiologist must be made aware of the nature and dosage of this medication before surgery as adjustments in doses of anesthesia medications in the peri-surgical period may be required.Best wishes...

Is it safe to be under general anesthesia as a Suboxone patient?

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