Are there any board certified doctors who perform a BBL with local anesthesia?

Hello and thank you for your question. It is always an advantage to do a surgery under a local anesthetic instead of general anesthesia when possible. However, for successful placement of fat cells into the buttocks, the patient should be placed under deep sedation. Harvesting the fat cells with liposuction is easily done with just a local anesthetic with minimal discomfort. During the fat transfer to the buttocks, I always place the fat on top of the bone, in between the muscle and under the skin. Unfortunately, it is not possible to get all of those areas numb. The deep placement of the fat, on multiple levels is necessary for a quality result and for as many fat cells to survive as possible, but it is not comfortable with local anesthetic. At my practice, I have a Board Certified Anesthesiologist there to place the patients under deep sedation, not general, for the transfer part of the surgery. This allows the patient to get through the surgery without pain, as well as allows me to successfully place the fat and create the best outcome.

Always seek the advice from a plastic surgeon certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

Good luck!

You do not necessarily need general anesthesia, but I do think it is a better patient experience.   I have performed many of these procedures with local and sedation, but it is certainly not for everyone and risk benefit analysis must be performed for each patient.Kenneth Hughes, MDLos Angeles, CA

Thank you for your question. BBL under local anesthesia is only possible if the patient is of excellent health, and has very little fat to be transferred. I perform this procedure only for special cases, most of the time, it's better for the patient to be under general anesthesia as this is very safe. You might be a candidate, but you'd need to have a consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon with expertise in this area. 

be careful, most doctors doing awake BBL are not real plastic surgeons but call themselves board certified cosmetic surgeons these are doctors who have taken a weekend course in liposuction. I would recommend you find a plastic surgeon who is board certified by the American Board of plastic surgery. In my opinion a BBL can be done awake but you have to put volume of numbing fluid in the buttocks to numb it up otherwise you're going to feel it and this means that you could be putting less fat grafts in the buttocks which means your result would be much less. The more fat you can put in the better results. Best of luck

Hello and thank you for the question. It is possible to have this done under local anesthesia. However, for most patients i do NOT recommend this. It is always better to be under anesthesia. When the patient is awake, a much larger dose of local anesthetic must be used to achieve a degree of numbness that the patient can tolerate. This causes difficulty in assessing the evenness of fat removed because the tissue is very swollen at this point. Second, there are REAL health risks associated with high doses of local anesthetic. Although there are risks of general anesthesia, these risks are very rare. As long as the procedure is performed in a fully licensed surgery center or hospital setting, there are safeguards in place to protect the health and well being of the patient. No doctor wants you to end up on the evening news. We do everything possible to be as safe as possible. You should seek several consultations with board certified plastic surgeons before making any final decisions. 

As always, best to be healthy, no smoking and make sure any health conditions you have are managed by your primary care md. 

Best to you.