Anesthesia and Your Safety

San Diego plastic surgery
operating room

For many patients, one of the greatest concerns when considering cosmetic procedures is anesthesia. Anesthesia has grown safer and safer over the years. Three main factors have contributed to improved overall anesthesia safety: the level of training of anesthesiologists; advances in monitoring equipment; and much-improved anesthesia drugs. Today, the risk of serious injury from anesthesia is about equivalent to the risks of serious injury while taking a drive in your car (thus the risks are statistically low).

To insure the safety and comfort of our patients at La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre (LJCSC), we only use board certified anesthesiologists. This means that our anesthesiologists are fully trained physicians board certified in the field of Anesthesiology by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Some plastic surgeons use Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CNRA's) - registered nurses who have completed specialized training in anesthesia. CNRA's are certainly competent and well trained, but we believe in going one step further, and therefore only use board certified anesthesiologists in our practice.

For almost all cosmetic surgery procedures performed at LJCSC, one of our board-certified anesthesiologists will be with you. You will have either monitored sedation (MAC) or general anesthesia. For very minor procedures (i.e., small scar revisions, excision of lesions), the procedure can be easily performed under local anesthesia without an anesthesiologist being present.

If monitored sedation is appropriate and is chosen by you and the anesthesiologist, sedation will be given intravenously and local anesthesia will be injected while you are temporarily so drowsy that you will not remember any pain. During the remainder of the operation, the anesthesiologist will keep you sleepy or tranquil so that you do not have any anxiety or restlessness. During the operation, your vital signs will be monitored by the anesthesiologist, just as they would be during a general anesthetic.

For many surgeries, monitored sedation is an ideal anesthetic choice. Advantages of this method are that you are not "completely out," and recovery is very smooth and almost never accompanied by nausea. Procedures that are ideal for this method include nasal surgery, eyelid surgery, and small areas of liposuction.

General anesthesia is utilized for more involved operations such as facelifts, tummy tucks, breast procedures, and standard liposuction. While some people fear general anesthesia, it should be reassuring to know that general anesthesia is 50 times safer today than it was 30 to 40 years ago. A major reason for this positive change is that the monitoring systems used during anesthesia have become exquisitely sensitive. Another major advancement is that post operative nausea and vomiting have been dramatically reduced with the use of new medications and treatment protocols.

The day of your surgery, you will meet and talk personally with the anesthesiologist who will be taking care of you in the operating room. Before your surgery, he or she will have reviewed your chart including your health history and the procedure(s) your surgeon will be doing for you. Your anesthesiologist will be glad to answer any questions you have about the anesthesia you will be receiving during your surgery.

Each person with you in the operating room has a role. The role of the anesthesiologist is multi-fold. They will not only deliver your anesthesia but will also provide continuing medical assessment of your condition by monitoring vital life functions such as heart rate and blood pressure. They will control your level of unconsciousness and will be there as you awaken in the OR. Their role in your surgical experience is a very important one. That is why we are so committed to high levels of competency in the area of anesthesia.

Our anesthesiology team at the La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre has been in place for approximately 15 years. All are board certified anesthesiologists and several have multiple boards including internal medicine, pulmonology, intensive care, and cardiology. Additionally, they all routinely provide anesthesia at a major hospital in San Diego County. This ensures that they are prepared to deal with patients who might have other medical factors that need specialized assessment. Dr. Stuart Young heads our team of anesthesiologists, and our feeling is that there is not a better team anywhere in the country.

Our board certified anesthesiologists are members of Anesthesia Service Medical Group, Inc. (ASMG), a highly recognized group of anesthesiologists in San Diego County founded in 1946. To learn more about this group of skilled professionals, you can visit their website at www.asmgmd.com . Our anesthesiologists are also members of other prestigious medical organizations such as The American Board of Anesthesiology, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the California Medical Association, and the California Society of Anesthesiologists. You might like to visit the website of the American Society of Anesthesiologists at www.asahq.org , as it contains some very helpful patient information on anesthesia.

To learn more about our facility as well as about our operating room suite, read About Our Centre and Making Sense of Certification .

Learn more about San Diego's La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre:

• Directions to La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre
• Learn about our Complimentary Seminars
• Video: About La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre
• Making Sense of Plastic Surgery Certification
• Our Team of Anesthesiologists
• What our patients say about our Cosmetic Surgery Centre
• What our patients say about our Cosmetic Dermatology Centre
• La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre In the Media
• Privacy Notice