Patients undergoing high definition liposuction surgery are evaluated much in the same manner as other surgical patients. If patients are undergoing extensive surgeries lasting longer than six hours or if they have comorbidities they are more inclined to require more aggressive medical care.
Measures requiring nursing care become mandatory if patients have high volume liposuction greater than 5 L of infiltration/aspiration. This is because high volumes of liposuction infiltration and aspiration increase the risk of lidocaine toxicity, as well as fluid shifts, form the vasculature causing hypotensive episodes. As such, all tumescent solutions used in high volume liposuction is made with ½ the lidocaine dose when compared to traditional liposuction thus minimizing the risk of lidocaine toxicity.
In addition, aggressive IV hydration is utilized to counter any fluid shifts thus avoiding hypotensive episodes. Another consideration includes the body mass index (BMI), a parameter that measures the degree the patient is overweight. When the BMI is greater than 33, the patient is considered a high-risk candidate and recommended to spend the night with one of our registered nurses. Finally, patients are monitored in the postoperative setting and if they display hypotensive episodes, desaturation of their oxygenation, or have pain out of proportion to that expected, arrangements are made for nursing care.