PLASTIC SURGERY

An important message from Dr. Vanek… Many things are very important to me… My practice and my patients… my colleagues and staff… my family… my faith… and my integrity. This is why I need to take a break this week from answering a reader’s question to correct something that I mistakenly wrote in a prior column. I wish to apologize to my anesthesiology team, with whom I have worked with over 20 years. They and their associates artfully administer anesthesia with the same due care that I apply when I do my surgery on my patients. They use the same expertise with carefully titrating IV fluids and medications, to assure your rapid emergence and safe recovery. A patient who has a procedure under local anesthesia will have direct swelling in the surrounding tissues from the administration of the anesthesia. As an example, should you have simply the administration of the local and no surgery, you would have about 80% of the swelling you would have if you did have a procedure. A patient who arrives NPO overnight has approximately 10% dehydration, which requires the anesthesiologist to balance that level of fluid requirement prior to administering appropriate amounts of fluid during the surgery. There is no trauma incurred to the tissue from the general anesthesia that you receive.

To my faithful readers, I will return to the format of answering your questions next week. I have always tried to be accurate in my answers, but you can believe that I will try even harder going forward. Thank you.