What are the Risks Associated With Anesthesia?

A lot of our patients list anesthesia as their main reason for concern before a procedure. We always tell them that their fears are obviously warranted, but not necessarily justified. Did you know that only 1 or 2 people in every 10,000 will wake up during anesthesia? And even if you are one of those people, it is even more unlikely that you will be able to feel the pain. Here is what you need to know about anesthesia»

General Anesthesia Risks
General Anesthesia is the type of anesthesia you receive when you are going to be fully sedated. This would be for open heart procedures, broken bones, liposuction, and other major procedures where a patient needs to be opened for a significant period of time. For that reason, general anesthesia is slightly more risky than local anesthesia, but problems are VERY rare. Here are some things that could make anesthesia problematic:

• Smoking
• Seizures
• Sleep Apnea
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Alcohol Abuse

Local Anesthesia Side Effects
Local Anesthesia, which we use more commonly here at Wall Street Cosmetic Surgery, is less risky and less costly. Local anesthesia is designed to not completely sedate the patient, but it cuts off sensations to the specific area of the body that is being operated on. They are NOT injected into your bloodstream, and some can be applied as a cream right to your skin. Here are some risks associated with local anesthesia:

• Overdosing
• Systemic toxicity
• Elongated numbness

Is Local Anesthesia Safer?
Local Anesthesia is not necessarily safer than General Anesthesia, it’s just that the procedures associated with them are usually very different in nature. As we said earlier, General Anesthesia tends to be for more complex procedures that require long periods of sedation. So for that reason, it is technically riskier because you’ll need a higher dosage and the procedure itself has a number of different possible outcomes. Local Anesthesia is safer because the procedures themselves are less invasive. The anesthetics themselves are not technically safer by any means. The main perk of Local Anesthesia is that it lessens the cost of the procedure.

Here at Wall Street Cosmetic Surgery, we primarily use local anesthesia because a large portion of our procedures are minimally invasive. Local anesthesia helps with pricing and we are still offering $1,500 OFF select procedures for a limited time only.

To schedule a free consultation, call Wall Street Cosmetic Surgery at 212-344-0496 or click around on our website!