Local anesthesia for facial surgery

Abstract

Local anesthesia has been used in facial cosmetic surgery for decades [1-4]. The anesthetic drugs allow operating without general anesthesia; the addition of bupivacaine gives some hours of postoperative pain relief; adrenaline produces vasoconstriction for some hours and a profuse infiltration separates the planes of dissection, thus facilitating the surgery. For local anesthesia, light or deep sedation is always necessary. For this kind of anesthesia, four steps should be considered [5]. © Springer-Verlag 2007.