How painful is Tumescent Liposuction under general anesthesia?

                  It’s
important to realize that significant misinformation seems to permeate this
discussion because of individual agendas. 
It’s safe to say that tumescent liposuction involves infusing fluid into
the subcutaneous tissue.  This
fluid is rich in epinephrine and local anesthetic and offers significant
advantages when performing liposuction. 
Patients have less bleeding and less post-operative pain with this
technique.

                  It’s
also true that Dr. Klein initially described the technique with local
anesthesia alone.  As with
everything else in medicine advances are made and techniques change over the
course of time.  A large number of
surgeons feel that in some cases general anesthesia in combination with tumescent
technique offers significant advantages over local
anesthesia alone.

                  There’s
no question that there’s risk associated with general anesthesia.  It’s also fair to say that there’s risk
associated with just about everything we do as surgeons.  In fact there’s risk associated with
lidocaine toxicity when practitioners are overly exuberant in their efforts to
avoid general anesthesia.

                  It’s
important to be honest when presenting the facts.  The best option for anesthesia varies from patient to
patient and depends on the patient’s aesthetic goals and anatomic
findings.  For some patients
general anesthesia is a good option. 
When this technique is utilized patients actually have less pain during
and after the procedure. 

The word tumescnt  means to make firm with fluid, With tumescent liposuction, a fluid is instilled intot he areas to be liposuctioned. The fluid contains lidocaine, an anesthetic, and epinethrine, which has two effects: less pain over about 18 or so hours, and it constricts the blood vessels. The latter prolongs the anesthetic effect and reduced the bleeding during the procedure, thus also reducing the post-op bruising,


Pure tumescent liposuction can eliminate a general anesthesia and the post op pain relief is prolonged. Most patients only take Tylenol after surgery.

The cost of the procedure is generally less, since an anesthetist is not necessary,

To answer your question directly, the pain is minimal with tumescent liposuction. Generally a Tylenol is only necessary, but our patients have stronger medications if they need them.

Since there is very little discomfort at all with tumescent liposuction under local anesthesia and you get better results with faster recovery, why would anyone ever let themselves be talked into general anesthesia with all its risks and problems! Our patients are comfortable, get to watch 3D movies or listen to soothing music and get up and walk out afterwards as if nothing happened except they got a new fabulous body and are back to work in only 2 days and exercising in 1 week. If you trust your doc completely and he/she really really wants to still use general anesthesia, then do it for him but know that there are unnecessary risks with gen. anesthesia you will be taking.  Sincerely,

David Hansen,MD