Anesthesia for Breast Augmentation

The Best Choice of Anesthesia for Breast Augmentation

Breast augmentation is a surgical procedure that has been popular for many women. It is commonly done for cosmetic reasons such as enlarging the breasts’ size and shape, and restoring the breast volume. It is also performed for breast reconstruction purposes to restore the breast after a breast cancer surgery.

Apart from what are mentioned above, there are also several reasons why breast augmentation is such a good decision for women to consider with. This includes the benefits it may offer to women to help them achieve the breasts they desire to have.

Here are the benefits of undergoing breast augmentation for women:

  • It can make the breasts bigger that are naturally small
  • It can increase the roundness and projection of the breasts
  • It can repair your breasts’ size and shape into good-looking ones if you went through pregnancy and breastfeeding, or some physical changes in your breasts after having gone to weight loss
  • It can make your breasts symmetrical if they are naturally asymmetrical
  • It can restore the proper fullness and proportion of the breast/s after undergoing to breast cancer surgery, or some other condition that caused the breasts’ size and shape to change its physical form

Generally, many women opt for this procedure because they usually experience a big enhancement in their self-esteem, and gain some positive feelings about their femininity. Going through a breast augmentation surgery is actually a great choice for them when it comes to boosting of self-confidence and uplifting of feminine figure.

However, if you want to be like those women who enthusiastically went through breast augmentation due to some reasons mentioned above, you need to picture yourself first in the reality where you will be undergone for a procedure and ask yourself how it is done, will it be worth it, and will it be safe for you once the surgery is completed.

Patients with an aspiration to undergo breast augmentation should go to a consultation first with their preferred experienced surgeon. The two will discuss everything about how breast augmentation works before, during and after the surgery. Then, as the deliberation goes well, the most important stage of the surgery that indeed you need to think through in considering breast augmentation is the choice of anesthesia that is good for you.

In fact, determining which anesthesia to be used is usually done through the discussion prepared by the patient and the surgeon. Deciding of what anesthesia is going to use is very crucial to make because this involves how the patient wants not to feel the pain during the surgery. The chosen anesthesia should also be safe once injected, and worn off easily after the surgery to return you from unconsciousness and make you feel again the normal sensations.

Type of Anesthesia to be Used for Breast Augmentation

Take note that breast augmentation is a surgical procedure that usually takes approximately 2 to 3 hours to accomplish. The choice of anesthesia will be preferred by you and your surgeon. The surgery can be done either under general anesthesia, local anesthesia or local anesthesia with sedation. Once the surgery is done, the surgeon will recommend you to wear a fixable bra for two weeks after the surgery. You need to rest and go back to your surgeon for your stitches to be removed about two weeks from the date of your surgery.
As what is indicated above, there are three types of anesthesia for breast augmentation procedure. To distinguish how these three work, consider the points below if it is a good choice for you or not:

  • General anesthesia

General anesthesia is injected before the surgery starts to make you fully asleep without feeling any pain during the operation. Once the drug is injected to you, you will be slowly falling to sleep and make you feel relaxed as your anxieties will all be disappeared. As it goes, you will not be aware at all about how the surgery is going through. Also, you will not be able to feel any sensation of discomfort throughout the surgery.
When you are finally asleep, there is a breathing tube that is lightly positioned through your windpipe to keep you from breathing while in the midst of the surgery. There is no need for you to worry about how this works because your vital signs, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are being monitored from time to time for your safety.

  • Local anesthesia

Local anesthesia works when it is injected into the areas that are involved in the surgery to make the tissues numb in order to make the pain nerves in the tissues not function while doing the operation. In contrast with general anesthesia, local anesthesia will not give you any feeling of relaxation to make you fall asleep. You will be fully awake throughout the surgery without the feeling of any pain as your pain nerves are locked up to function.

  • Local anesthesia with sedation (oral or intravenous)

If you want to get numb while in a surgery but wants to get relaxed as well, you may choose the local anesthesia with sedation. This is also the same with local anesthesia but with the use of sedation to make you feel relaxed before the surgery starts. Once sedation is given to you, you should be watched and observed by an anesthesiologist throughout the surgery because if not, this may cause you to stop breathing on your own. Therefore, proper checking can prevent this to happen and it is highly required during the surgery.

On the other hand, there are times when this type of anesthesia does not work well, some surgeons recommend patients to switch to general anesthesia instead.
In general, many patients prefer the local anesthesia because there is less nausea happening after the procedure. Also, you will not experience the many but rare possible problems that are commonly transpire with a general anesthesia that most patients are pretty concerned about. Less potential of infection and bleeding can also be occurred, and the downtime recovery is better compared to general anesthesia.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is still better for you to make a discussion between you and your surgeon about which type of anesthesia is going to use. It is a matter of a right choice and preference as long as the both of you fully understand the importance of safety of the breast augmentation surgery.