Plastic Surgery and Narcosis
Narcosis in Aesthetics
Like all surgeries, plastic surgeries are also painful and precautions must be taken for this. The Department of Anesthesiology provides services in this regard. Before the operation, the patient is made pain free and then the operation begins. This process is called anesthesia.
The main types of anesthesia
General Anesthesia (Narcosis)
The patient is completely anesthetized. His breathing continues with a machine. During sleep, the patient does not feel anything. When the surgery is over, he is awakened again and allowed to breathe spontaneously and leaves the anesthesia machine. General anesthesia has become quite safe nowadays. Some patients prefer general anesthesia because they do not want to see or hear anything. However, “fear of narcosis” is still an important reality among the public. Because of this fear, many patients prefer to be operated on, if possible, without narcosis or, by their own words, without being put to sleep. Today, painless surgeries can be performed without being connected to an anesthesia machine, that is, without general anesthesia (narcosis).
Sedation Anesthesia
Very strong sedatives are given intravenously to the patient by the anesthesiologist. The patient falls asleep and does not feel pain. However, he can respond when asked questions and can do so when asked to move certain areas. When the intravenous drugs lose their effect, he returns to his normal alertness and can walk in a short time.
Local anesthesia
Drugs with a strong numbing effect are injected into the operation area and the feeling of pain disappears in a short time. Many of us have met with local anesthesia when we went to the dentist for treatment. The effect of local anesthesia disappears after hours. The only frightening aspect of local anesthesia is the slight pain felt when the first needle is inserted and the drug is given.
In aesthetic surgeries, sedation anesthesia and local anesthesia are performed together so that the initial numbing needles are not felt. The advantage of this type of anesthesia over general anesthesia is that patients can usually be sent home without hospitalization after surgery. In addition, during the surgery, patients make the procedure easier and safer by making the movements requested by the physician or by answering the questions asked.
In many parts of the world, plastic surgeons prefer to perform some operations with sedation and local anesthesia. In these surgeries called “same day surgery”, patients go home at the end of the procedure without staying at the hospital. This provides a significant reduction in operating costs. A very important benefit of this anesthesia is seen in operations on sensitive areas such as the face and eyelids. During the operation, the patient opens and closes his eyes or moves his lips, allowing the effectiveness of the operation to be seen on the table. The fact that the patient can change his position voluntarily during the operation makes the surgeon’s job easier, especially in liposuction, ear, face and neck aesthetic surgeries.
Most of the aesthetic surgeries (liposuction, simple breast lift surgeries, simple nose surgeries, ear, eyelid, eyebrow, forehead, face and neck surgeries) can be performed on an outpatient basis with sedation and local anesthesia without the need to stay in the hospital at night.
Here, the following important point should not be overlooked: Outpatient aesthetic surgeries performed with sedation are no different from surgeries performed under general anesthesia. For this reason, it is essential that they be performed in a full-fledged operating room.