Tumescent Anesthesia Face Lift procedure?

I would like to know, does any plastic surgeon have experience with this type of procedure? Any opinions?

Local vs. general anesthesia for facelift procedures

Thanks for your question - Tumescent fluid is a combination of local numbing medicine (typically lidocaine) with epinephrine (adrenaline) which helps constrict blood vessels to reduce bleeding. It was originally used for liposuction procedures but has also become an important part of face lift surgery. The term tumescent refers to the feel of the tissue when it was injected with sufficient quantity of the medication to become somewhat firm. This is a bit of a left over description ... most plastic surgeons use super wet or wet tumescent techniques for liposuction at this point (the difference is the volume of fluid with the above drugs injected vs. the amount of tissue extracted.) In this regard, "tumescent" is a bit inaccurate to describe the local injected for a facelift as there is typically minimal amount of liposuction involved. But the concept it the same, using a combination of lidocaine for analgesia + epinephrine to decrease bleeding. Most facelifts have some degree of these two medications used even when general anesthesia is used. I hope this helps.


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