Before you go to sleep
These operations involve removing excess skin and tissue from your arms (brachioplasty) and thighs (medial thigh lift). Not infrequently these procedures are done together on the same day.
If you haven’t already met your anaesthetist, you will meet them either on the ward or in the anaesthetic bay on the day of your surgery. At this stage if you have any concerns or worries about your operation or anaesthetic please let them know.
Once in the anaesthetic bay you will have an intravenous drip placed and often you will be given a sedative “relaxing medication” just before going into the operating theatre. You often will not remember much after being given the sedative. Once inside the operating theatre you will have several monitors placed (these monitor your blood pressure, heart rate, level of awareness and breathing patterns). Once these are placed you will be given an oxygen mask and then receive another injection through the drip. This injection will be the anaesthetic medicine that induces unconsciousness. The next thing you will remember is waking up either in the recovery room or in the operating theatre.
The Operation
During the operation your anaesthetist will remain with you monitoring your safety, your anaesthetic and all your vital physiological functions. If your operation is expected to be a long one we will sometimes place a special drip into your arm that allows us to measure your blood pressure continuously (rather than by the blood pressure cuff every five minutes). Because we are operating on your arms in a brachioplasty an intravenous drip will often be placed in your foot when you are asleep for the brachioplasty operations. This will generally be removed in recovery. Your anaesthetist will remain with you continuously until you reach the recovery room. In recovery your care will be continued by the recovery staff. While you are in recovery if you have any discomfort or feel nauseated or sick it is important that you let the recovery staff know. They can administer pain killers or anti-nausea drugs if they are required. The aim is to have you comfortable when you leave recovery for the ward.
