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Tummy tucks are normally done under general anesthesia, meaning the patient is "asleep". I personally have not had any patients ask to be awake, and I would not recommend it. There is a lot of dissection involved, and it is ideal to perform this in a controlled environment.If all you needed was surgery on a small or limited area, then performing this while you were awake would be reasonable. In that case, you could be given "local anesthesia" where the area that was worked on could be numbed up with injections, and you could be given medications for sedation to make you more comfortable. Another type of anesthesia is "regional anesthesia" such as an epidural, where a numbing medication is injected directly into your spine.Keep in mind each type of anesthesia has risks and benefits, and the decision should be made between the patient, anesthesiologist (or trusted certified anesthetist), and the surgeon. In any case, you will still have a cost for the anesthesia, and it is best to have your surgery under conditions that are ideal for you and your surgeon.I would recommend consulting with a board certified plastic surgeon to determine what procedure you really need, and what type of anesthesia would be the safest for you.Good luck!
You must be administered some type of anesthesia during any type of tummy tuck to ease pain associated with the surgery and to allow your surgeon a wider range of access. In the great majority of cases, tummy tuck surgery is performed with the patient under general anesthesia. You will be asleep if general anesthesia is administered and, in my opinion, will find the procedure to be more comfortable and pleasant. Still, it is possible for a mini tummy tuck to be performed under less intensive local anesthesia, with the patient “awake,” should find this option preferable for you. These are options you should discuss with your surgeon at a consultation or pre-op appointment
Hi there-I have personally done tummy tuck surgery under all possible anesthetic techniques, and would have you understand the following:Doing a tummy tuck under local, it is almost impossible to achieve as good an outcome as you can reliably achieve with the patient under general anesthesia. Without muscle relaxation (medication given when under general anesthesia that paralyzes the muscles, making their tightening much more effective), effective muscle tightening is simply not possible as your muscles fight the sutures with every breath, especially if you feel a twinge of pain from time to time (this is inevitable).If that's not enough to deter you, realize that THERe IS A LIMIT TO HOW MUCH NUMBING MEDICINE YOU CAN HAVE safely, and that if you have too much (because you are in pain and your surgeon is now under pressure to finish the operation he/she started), you could die. In fact, many of the cases of patient deaths during liposuction have resulted from overdoses of numbing medicine.Tummy tucks can be done with deep sedation and numbing medicine, but again, the outcome is simply never as good.Take a step back from this discussion for a minute and think about why you are even asking these questions.... I think it's probably safe to assume that you are asking about this because you want your abdomen to look as good as it can, and you would like to be as safe as possible throughout the process, right?As long as that is the case, your chances of ending up happy are the highest if you find a surgeon certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery and discuss your goals with them. For more on how best to find on you like and can trust, please read this:
A mini-abdominoplasty can be easily done under local. Doing a full abdominoplasty is a bit more work and would likely be uncomfortable under straight local. Doing it with some sedation or perhaps under spinal would be another alternative.
Anlost any procedure can be done under local anesthesia. It may not be comfortable or pleasant, but it can be done.Generally it is better to perform this procedure under general anesthesia because the airway can be protected from stomach contents, an unlikely but possible scenario.
I have had a few patients who have asked about this, and I agree that an epidural would really be best. Since I do liposuction with so many of my patients lying face down, it's not practical for me.Also, I'm not really sure how many patients are truly comfortable being awake and aware of all the things we are doing during a tummy tuck!
