Lower face/neck lift and SVT?

Thank you for your question regarding facelift or facelift with neck lift surgery.

The abbreviation SVT can refer to either supraventricular tachycardia (a heart rhythm abnormality) or superficial venous thrombosis (a clot in a superficial vein). Based on your description of having four episodes per year, it is more likely that you are referring to supraventricular tachycardia.

In general, having a cardiology assessment is valuable in such cases. While patients who experience infrequent episodes of SVT are not always on regular medication, it may be advisable to have medication in place around the time of surgery to help prevent any cardiac events. Additionally, undergoing the procedure under local anaesthesia with intravenous sedation can be a safer approach in such cases, as it minimises cardiovascular stress compared to general anaesthesia.

Most importantly, the treatment protocol should be carefully coordinated between your cardiologist and your surgeon to ensure a robust plan is in place. This collaborative approach helps optimise safety and provides the best conditions for a smooth surgical experience.

As safety is the greatest priority with any surgery. It would be wise for you to contact your primary care physician and have them give you a cardiology referral so that your heart can be evaluated, an EKG and other testing done so that the anesthesiologist who would be attending your surgery would feel confident that you’re safe to have surgery. This would be shared with your plastic surgeon. Best wishes.

Yes, having SVT can be an issue when having a procedure such as a face/necklift You will need clearance from your cardiologist. The procedure is sometimes performed with local anesthesia, however, both local anesthesia and tumescent anesthesia contain epinephrine which increases your heart rate. With intravenous anesthesia, you will want to have an anesthesiologist monitoring your anesthesia. This is an elective procedure, so the utmost caution is advised.