Anesthesia-Related Risks of Liposuction

Many medical reports say that almost all liposuction-related deaths have been attributed to errors in the use of general anesthesia. Administering anesthesia to patients, however, is necessary in order to perform the liposuction operation smoothly, and to allow patients to heal faster.



Anesthesia is a multi-tasking drug. It’s a potent pain reliever that causes the patient to become immobile and unconscious, while reducing or stopping the body’s responses to pain and trauma such as increased blood pressure and rapid breathing. The drug also obstructs the body’s sensory, reflex, mental, and motor functions. Anesthesia, thus, is the all-in-one drug that allows surgeries to be tolerable for the human body.



Of the four basic types of anesthesia, namely general, regional, local, and conscious sedation, only local and general anesthesia can be used for liposuction. In all kinds of surgery, the anesthesia should be administered by either a registered anesthesiologist or the surgeon. During liposuction, the surgeon makes a choice between local and general anesthesia, depending on his or her preference and on the size of the area where the procedure is to be performed. Liposuction done on the stomach area, for example, would be performed with general anesthesia while arm liposuction would require just local anesthesia.



In Los Angeles liposuction, local anesthetics are often used with some amount of sedation to relax the patient. Local anesthesia is typically safer that general anesthesia because, in this case, the patient is awake and conscious enough to breathe on his or her own. General anesthesia, on the other hand, causes patient to completely relax and fall asleep.



The deaths attributed to liposuction sometimes occur when the patient nasal passages clog up from getting too relaxed, or when the doctor over-operates. And the main concern relies in the capability of the doctor to identify if the fully-anesthetized patient has had enough fat suction. In Los Angeles liposuction practices, doctors have turned to laser technology to reduce the risks of using anesthetics.



Laser technology has effectively reduced the risks of over-operation and breathing failures while the patient is under general anesthesia, mostly because laser liposuction can be completed significantly faster than traditional liposuction. Los Angeles liposuction experts say that this does not only keep the patient safe from the traditional risks, but also allows patients to heal faster as the laser procedure is far less invasive than traditional liposuction.