Your question is a good one. The answer depends quite a bit on you and your own personal risk factors - as well as the procedure and type of anesthesia planned. This is a very "hot topic" amongst us plastic surgeons. In general the risk is quite low, but we certainly want to protect everyone. Therefore, we have some guidelines for thinning patients blood depending on what their risk is.Talk to your surgeon about this topic and I'm sure you will get some good information.Good Luck!
Liposuction is a relatively low risk procedure from either a fat embolism or a blood clot. The relative risk of a blood clot in the leg and/or lung is about 0.8 percent for liposuction (vs. 1.2% risk with tummy tuck). Three are many things you can do to minimize this risk, including scoring your prior medical and family history for risk factors and scoring, using SCD'd (Calf Squeezers) and/or Lovenox (Blood Thinners) to decrease the risks. Regarding fat embolism, I use the VASER which is an advanced liposuction device, that minimizes connective tissue and blood vessels damage, thus reducing the risk of a fat embolism. to my knowledge there have been no fat embolisms reported with the use of the VASER in its over 14 years of use and millions of cases performed.
