Safety in liposuction using local tumescent anesthesia: a report of 1,107 procedures between 1998 and 2004

Introduction: Liposuction is a cosmetic procedure that removes undesired body fat. More recently, it has been associated with complications and deaths, raising concerns about the risk involved in the procedure. Since the tumescent technique was described by Jeffrey Klein, surgeons from around the world have contributed to the development of the technique, making liposuction with microcannulas and local anesthesia a safe and effective procedure that achieves its objective. Nevertheless, severe complications and deaths are described in the literature when the procedure is performed under general anesthesia or with IV drugs, or when there is a breach of the protocols recommended for local tumes- cent anesthesia. Therefore, it is necessary to establish protocols for liposuction procedures that use local tumescent anesthesia, to promote safety.
Objective:To demonstrate that using local tumescent anesthesia in liposuction is safe.
Methods: Retrospective study of medical records of 568 patients who underwent 1,107 liposuction procedures assisted by local tumescent anesthesia between 1998 and 2004.
Results: There were no deaths or complications that required hospitalization.
Conclusions: When standardized protocols are observed, liposuction assisted exclusively by local tumescent anesthesia was shown to be a safe procedure.

Keywords: LIPECTOMY, ANESTHESIA, LOCAL, SAFETY