Liposuction

PRE OPERATION

Now that we have met, and gone through what the surgery entails, here are just a few guidelines on the upcoming weeks prior to your surgical day.

1 month prior to surgery:

-Refrain from smoking completely, it impairs healing, can cause stretched, widened, elevated and thickened darker scars, as well as causing skin death.

2 weeks prior to surgery:

-Avoid anything with aspirin, or any flu medication combinations-these contain blood thinning drugs

1 week prior to surgery:

-Stop all over the counter medications including vitamins and avoid anything over 1 unit of alcohol[a glass of wine/ a beer] per night -Stop all health and gym supplements completely -Stop any tea preparations[green tea/health tea] other that the normal varieties. 

-Avoid anything with aspirin, or any flu medication combinations-these contain blood thinning drugs

- This is for 2 weeks prior to surgery.[any other blood thinning medication must be reported to Dr Singh if you happened to omit this on my information/consult form] 

-Continue taking all other medications

Day of Surgery:

-Anxiety is expected, mixed with excitement, but most importantly, a feeling that you are in the best hands and will be well looked after throughout your whole surgical experience. 

-Chat to me about any last minute questions you have, I pride myself in being an approachable person, not just an approachable surgeon. 

-Don’t eat or drink from the specified time on your admission slip, and come through to the day ward where I will go through things again.

 -I will prescribe some meds to take the edge off and get you a bit drowsy before you are wheeled into theatre [this is called a pre-med] I will put up a drip and you will be put off to sleep, I routinely tell my patients that the prick of the drip is the most painful bit of the procedure. 

-You will have “twilight anaesthesia” ie you will not have any pipes put down into your lungs, you will be fully in control of your breathing and vitals, and worldwide, this is preferred as there are less fluctuations eg of your blood pressure, no coughing on removing pipes from your lungs with eg full anaesthesia] therefore less chance of swelling.

POST OPERATION

We will wake you up in theatre and transfer you back to the ward. You will have a few 2 mm incisions that have been closed, but allow fluid to drain- this drainage is pink, and after 2-3 days, becomes a transparent yellow then stops. 

You will have basic occlusive dressing over them, we will supply you with more so you can change them as they become soiled.

A useful trick is also to cut a sanitary pad and pop them under your pressure garment directly over the suture line.  

You will be discharged with some painkillers, and anti-inflammatories, and some antibacterial ointment. The local anaesthesia wears off in approx 3 hours so please take as much meds as you require to alleviate the symptoms. 

Antibiotics are not recommended as apart from the side effects, the type of procedure does not warrant it. Do not smoke, take any alcohol, or start any over the counter meds or any other of the blood thinners as set out in my pre-op form

Do start your chronic meds[besides blood thinners] the day of surgery. Shower normally the day after surgery after removing your garment. [You may get the area wet the day after surgery.] Should your garment be soiled- place it in the washing machine, or hand wash it- it must be air dried-never placed in the tumble drier[unless you have a delicate cycle. 

Use micropore tape over the tiny incision lines- changing only every 5 days, get it wet etc- however for this size incision-not using micropore tape at all is acceptable. Wear the garment 24 hours a day for 3 weeks, and then as tolerated [either at night or during the day] for another 3 weeks.

I will review you in my rooms 1-2 weeks after surgery- there are no stitches to be removed. Return to work 5-7 days post op [as well as driving.] Start gym at 2 weeks and progress as tolerated.

After approximately a week, the residual discolourations and bruising subsides almost completelyPreviously I used to send my patients to a physio for lymphatic massage post op- this is entirely up to you, using some arnica oil and simple massage twice a day for 2 weeks is often sufficient and bears no influence on the outcome. 

I will see you again in a month, then 3-6 months post op, then a year. 

Should you gain weight, you will not gain weight in the liposuctioned areas to the same degree had you not had the procedure, however the cells we leave behind [it is impossible and will be hideous to remove all the cells] can expand in size. 

Liposuction unfortunately is not an exact science, and we wait for skin retraction and re-draping of the skin which is often unpredictable-it is possible that you may have some residual contour deformity- which may be easily addressed in theatre.

I prefer not doing any procedures in my rooms as by HPCSA/SABS and MPS law- they are not sterile procedures, and it is not a fully fledged theatre with all the safety features thereof. 

You will be most happy with your refreshed and rejuvenated look!