Hello, and thank you for your question. There are many options for anesthesia regarding a brachioplasty. We perform this surgery under some light sedation as well as deeper general anesthesia depending upon the patient's request. We also have the availability for a board certified anesthesiologist to help with your decision. You can discuss this with an inpatient consultation with a qualified board certified plastic surgeon in your area. We have an office in St. Petersburg and would be happy to see you for a complimentary consultation to discuss all of your choices. You can visit our website for further information . Best of luck with your decision.
Technically, yes it would be possible. However, I do recommend this even though I have had several patients ask. The reason I will not is because in order to complete the operation under sedation, local anesthetic has to be injected into the arms which causes swelling of the arms. Notoriously, when doing a brachipolasty, the arm swells tremendously on its own without injecting local and even though the final result is usually as tight as the skin will allow, over the next few days to weeks, the swelling resolves and the tightness of the arm is less than immediately after surgery. Adding swelling from local would only make this problem worse and make the results worse, in my opinion, long term. Thus, I think this procedure is best done with the patient off to sleep. An LMA (laryngeal mask airway) is a nice alternative to an ET (endotrachial tube) in this type of situation so that general anesthetic can still be given without the trauma to the airway. Best of luck!
