YOUR SURGEON’S EQUIPMENT
Ó PJWMDPA
It is obvious that all of your surgeon’s
equipment is very important. Does your surgeon have an EKG
(electrocardiograph)
monitor? If not, what if you were to have a heart
problem? Emergency services provided by
calling
911 do not usually arrive
quickly enough. Does your doctor have a backup liposuction aspirator in case
the first one fails?
Does your surgeon use
large-diameter (wider) cannulae
that may leave waves in the skin once the swelling fluid passes? Also,
larger diameter (wider) cannulae require larger entrance holes, which
will mean larger scars
on your body. Does your doctor have the 6-0 stitch
with which to sew the entrance
wound so that no suture "train tracks" can
be seen (the knots are tied lightly so that tumescent
fluid may still escape).
Of what types are the
cannulae tips? Do the tips have rasps and barbs? You may wish to ask
your surgeon to see one during your consultation. If there are barbs
and rasps, fat may come out more quickly, but these types of cannulae
tend to tear the fine capillaries and the blood vessels causing more
tissue damage and bruising. This may cause long-lasting swelling. Smoother
tips tend (in most patients) to be more delicate and tend to tease fat
from the body as opposed to the tearing action that may lead to more
bleeding and persistent swelling.
What is your doctor’s
office or surgicenter's or hospital's infection rate? Does your doctor
sterilize with heat or with chemicals? Some doctors do not even know
that their liposuction equipment cannot be sterilized with cold chemicals,
as was the case in Southern California. Chemical "sterilization" does
not kill many types of germs, among which is a tap water–borne
germ called atypical mycobacteria. Weeks after various surgeons in Southern
California performed liposuctions, their patients began to develop boils
and sores on their skin. The boils and sores would not go away with
regular antibiotics. Many of these boils resisted treatment and left
behind large, unsightly scars. This could not have happened with properly
sterilized liposuction equipment. Proper sterilization of liposuction
equipment should be performed in an autoclave with either gas or steam.
Does your doctor have these sterilization methods available for the
longer cannulae? Are the cannulae too large to fit in the surgeon’s
steam autoclave? If so, where else are the longer cannulae sterilized?
These are important questions that you may find comforting to have answered
by the office or hospital staff or before scheduling your liposuction
with a particular surgeon.
