Plastic surgery and anesthesia

By lcherup on April 30, 2009

The kind of anesthesia and how smoothly the patient moves through it can either make or break a good plastic surgery operation and its final result.  When I had a rhinoplasty in 1985, one year before I got pregnant with my first child, I had 2 days of post-op nausea and vomiting, and the bruising and swelling in my face practically ruined the good work that Dr. Musgrave did.  I do not have to tolerate such a situation for my patients now.  Our well-trained nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists have drugs so superior, so fast-acting and resolving, that very few of our patients have significat nausea post-op.  Furthermore, I inject almost all patients with some Marcaine post-op, an anesthetic that lasts for 6 hours so they can get home and get some food in their tummy, get on the couch, and can take a Percocet before stronger pain arrives.

     The unfortunate situation is that there is a terrible disconnect between what we can do for patients and what insurance will pay for. Anesthesia groups have become administrative and financial conglomerates that demand fairly high salaries for their employees and we in Pennsylvania have suck-ass poor insurance payment by  insurance providers.  It would be better if patients just paid for all of their anesthesia in cash.  Their anesthesia care would be better, and it is for my aesthetic surgery patients who do just that.  .

Posted in Anesthesia in plastic surgery patients | 5 Comments