It’s important to know the difference between General Anaesthetic & Local or Twilight Sedation.
GENERAL ANAESTHESIA
General anesthesia is the administration of general anesthetic agents that make a person unconscious and unable to feel pain – often used during operative procedures. The combination of these anestheticagents – intravenous drugs and inhaled gasses – is intended to induce: analgesia – loss of response to pain. The overall result is ensuring amnesia, analgesia, relaxation of skeletal muscles, and loss of control of reflexes of the autonomic nervous system. You don’t want to be ‘twitching’ or moving at all when a surgeon is operating on you! All Medi Makeovers procedures are performed under General Anaesthesia at internationally accredited hospitals with a specialist Anaesthetist in attendance with the patient breathing through an Anaesthetic Ventilator. The anaesthetic drugs are administered directly through this ventilator.
TWILIGHT SEDATION AKA LOCAL ANAESTHETIC
Twilight Sedation, also know as Local Anaesthesia or Conscious Sedation, is a technique where a small dose of anaesthesia is applied to induce anxiolysis (anxiety relief), hypnosis, and anterograde amnesia (inability to form new memories). The patient is not unconscious, but sedated. During surgery, the patient is under what is known as a ‘twilight state’, where the patient is relaxed and ‘sleepy’, and sometimes responsive to simple directions by the doctor.
Clinics that offer major procedures such as Breast Augmentation or Liposuction only under Twilight Sedation do so because this is their only option (they are only accredited to offer ‘Twilight’ or ‘Local’ sedation. This means their operating rooms do not meet the standards required of a Private or Public Hospital. These facilities can be converted offices or former houses with one or more operating ‘theatres’. This means these facilities are not licensed to put patients into a deeper sedation termed ‘Unconscious Sedation’ or ‘Deep Sedation’ which is in effect General Anaesthesia.
THE RISKS OF SURGERY UNDER TWILIGHT SEDATION
There are quite serious risks associated with Local Anaesthesia when undergoing major surgical procedures. The highest risk (as reported in Australia) is local anaesthesia toxicity. This is due to a patient’s adverse reaction to an overdose of local anestheic and can result in cardiac arrest. This requires emergency care and transportation to a hospital where the patient can receive the treatment they need – usually in an ICU (Intesive Care Unit) or CCU (Cardiac Care Unit).
Another risk is breathing issues associated with not using an Anaesthetic Ventilator (only used with General Anaesthetic). Breathing difficulty can result from complications due to anaesthetic reactions, antibiotic reactions and the actual surgery itself (especially Breast Augmentation as the surgery is pressing on the chest). In this case, again emergency services would be called to the clinic to transport the patient to a hospital. The clinic will usually have small emergency supplies available – however they will not have the professionals on hand, nor all of the correct machiens to deal with these issues.
This is why no matter which country you are in, it is safest to have your surgery carried out in an accredited hospital where emergency equipment and professionals are on hand to deal with the risk of an emergency during your surgery. This CAN happen, and if you have never had surgery before, it is wise not to risk your health in a facility that cannot address an unknown reaction to anaesthetic or your surgery.
ALL major surgery offered by Medi Makeovers is done under a General Anaesthesia and in an Internationally Accredited Private Hospital.
If you have any questions about your surgery, we’re happy to help.
ENQUIRE TODAY, email enquiries@medimakeovers.com or call 0416109417
