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. 

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

The pain should be similar in 4-6 hours after the procedure.  Take pain medication and you should be comfortable. Thank you for your question and good luck with everything.