subject: Getting Liposuction? Here's A Look At Why Localized Anesthesia Is Better Than General Anesthesia [print this page] When a person goes in for liposuction, it is essential that an anesthetic be used to make the surgery possible. A recipient of the surgery will have some choice in regards to the anesthesia. Although some anesthesiologists are willing to use general anesthesia, it is actually not the best choice. Localized anesthesia in a small surgery is the better choice and this article will discuss why.
Surgery, by definition, involves the breaking of the skin of the body. (Even the most noninvasive surgeries require making small incisions.) This is painful, and no one could endure it without the use of anesthesia.
Anesthetics are medications that block a person's awareness of pain, essentially numbing an area of the body.
Because using anesthetics can be potentially dangerous, it is something of a science. The kinds and amounts of anesthetics used depend on the individual.
For safety reasons, anesthetics are administered by people who specialize in anesthesiology. They are called anesthesiologists. (A significant percent of the cost of getting any surgery is paying the anesthesiologist.)
When liposuction was new just a few years ago, there was some debate about anesthesia. Was it advisable to use general anesthesia or local anesthesia?
General anesthesia is used for many medically-necessary invasive surgeries. It involves making the patient completely unconscious for the surgery.
Local anesthesia usually involves pumping medications into a specific area of the body. Only an isolated area of the body is numbed. In this case, the patient is completely conscious.
Although liposuction has been done both ways, time has shown that local anesthesia is safer and more effective than is general anesthesia. But why?
For one thing, liposuction is a minor and purely cosmetic procedure. Only a few pounds of fat can be removed this way and only from a small area of the body.
This is why it's only necessary to numb the isolated area. There are several advantages to having the patient awake during the surgery as well.
During liposuction, a tube called a cannula is inserted into the fatty layer of fat under the skin through small incisions. Some of the fat cells are broken and then sucked out.
A patient who is awake can notify the surgeon of physiological signals that might mean that something is wrong. The body seems to have a certain threshold for how much fat it can lose without damaging the body systems.
Feelings of nausea, headache, or unexpected pains near the numbed area can all be warning signs that may be missed if a patient is under general anesthesia.
Being awake during surgery is frightening for some people. Sometimes a mild sedative can be given at the time of the surgery just to help the patient feel calm. All that a patient can feel during liposuction is a slight pressure and scraping sensation. It isn't too bad.
