Cell saver for BBL, what exactly is it?

Question

I was wondering if I could get a doctor to explain cell saver to me, what qualifies a patient to need it. And if it is mandatory. And how would you know if you actually had it done during surgery? Thank you for your time!

Kenneth Hughes, MD · Answer

I have not found cell saver to be necessary or useful in a BBL. The surgery can be shortened or the number of procedures reduced. Patients whose hemoglobin falls between 11.0 and 11.9 may qualify for the use of the cell saver. The machine collects any blood lost, filters it, and inserts it back into your body. Your board certified plastic surgeon will evaluate your lab work and tell you if you will benefit from the use of the cell saver.

Daniel Barrett, MD · Answer

Dear rahrah2,
every plastic surgeon has his own intraoperative protocol which he recommends to his patients. I would suggest you to discuss this with your plastic surgeon.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Giancarlo McEvenue, MD, FRCSC · Answer

Hello,
What the cellsaver does is salvages blood loss during surgery and then you can transfuse this back into the patient. Why I say insurance is because the goal of surgery is to minimize blood loss but sometimes there is bleeding in surgery despite the best efforts of the surgeon. When this occurs the cell saver is an efficient way to return some of that lost blood to the patient before they even wake up from surgery. I usually recommend the cellsaver if a patient has low Hemoglobin level or a high BMI over 30 where I find the risk of bleeding is increased.SincerelyDr.G

Rhett N. Willis, Jr., MD · Answer

Cell Saver is a device used in trauma surgery and cases with the potential for large volume blood loss. When you suction up the lost blood (typlcally in a body cavity during the surgery) it is circulated through a storage device that washes the blood and allows it to be re-injected back into the patient. It is essentially a device to transfuse back your own blood that is lost in surgery. 
In my limited experience, you should not need a Cell Saver during lipo/BBL as you should not be losing that much blood during liposuction.

Mats Hagstrom, MD (license on probation) · Answer

This was the first paragraph that popped up with a Google search.

I think it explains a cell saver quite well.

Cell savers” are instruments that collect blood lost during surgery. The RBCs are washed with normal saline and concentrated to make an approximate 225 mL unit with a hematocrit of ~ 55%. RBC units can be either directly transfused into the patient or washed again and stored.

When good surgical technique is used for both liposuction and fat transfer we have very little blood loss.

This requires using the appropriate amount of tumescent solution, placing it to mess up the solution properly and giving it enough time to work properly.

Occasionally plastic surgeons are in a hurry and don’t feel like sitting around for 10 to 15 minutes allowing the tumescent solution to get into full affect.  The solution has a drug called epinephrine that causes blood vessels to tightly constrict significantly lowering blood loss for this procedure.  when the steps are not done properly blood loss with liposuction it goes up dramatically.

For those cases using a cell saver is a nice idea because people feel better having a normal red blood cell count and getting blood transfusions from someone else’s blood is considered undesirable.

Using good technique patients should not require blood transfusions from other people or their own blood but I suppose in large cases getting some blood back may be a nice advantage.

Talk to your surgeon about it

Best,

Mats Hagstrom MD

Cell saver for BBL, what exactly is it?

Answers (5)

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