Anesthesia Options For Plastic Surgery
Any type of surgical act requires the use of anesthesia. The role of anesthesia is to help the patient feel no pain during the procedure. The main types of anesthesia used for plastic surgery are general anesthesia and local anesthesia with sedation.
During the pre-operative consultation, you will discuss the details of the anesthesia with the plastic surgeon. Depending on your particularities or the type of procedure to be performed, the plastic surgeon will recommend one type of anesthesia or the other. Generally speaking, for longer procedures or procedures targeting a larger area of the body, general anesthesia is often preferred for the comfort of the patient. For example, breast enhancement procedures such as a breast lift, breast augmentation, breast reduction and buttock enhancement procedures such as butt implant surgery and fat transfer to the buttocks often use general anesthesia. At the same time, for body lift procedures such as the tummy tuck and brachioplasty, the recommendation is still to use general anesthetic. However, liposuction can be performed with local anesthesia with sedation, but it depends from patient to patient.
During the pre-operative consultation with the plastic surgeon, you will get an idea about the type of anesthesia recommended for your particular case. However, an ulterior meeting will be scheduled with the anesthesiologist to have an exam and decide the doses of the anesthesia and what anesthetic will be used. Make sure to tell both the plastic surgeon and anesthetist if you have a history of allergies to certain medication.
When anesthesia is used, what actually happens is that the anesthetist will inject the patient (usually intravenous) with what we can call a sleeping substance. During general anesthesia, many of the body functions are limited or inactive, and the patient needs external support. General anesthesia helps the patient feel no pain when the procedure is performed, have no reflexes during the surgical act, and also have no memories during the operation. When anesthesia is used, the medical staff has the responsibility to monitor the vitals of the patient throughout the procedure and until the patient makes a complete recovery from the effects of the anesthetic. Always make sure you choose a board-certified plastic surgeon and anesthetist to play out your procedure in an accredited medical facility with all the safety protocols in place. This is important both for the success of your surgery and to avoid potential complications that can occur during the operation.
Most patients know that the role of the plastic surgeon doesn’t end after the procedure. Follow-up consultations will be scheduled and the plastic surgeon has the responsibility to monitor the patient during the recovery period. The same is valid for the anesthetist. His role is not finished when the patient wakes up from the effects of the anesthetic. The anesthetist will monitor the patient after the surgery and will offer treatment for post-op pain.