In a cosmetic surgery operation, the use of the nerve block anesthesia technique inhibits the conduction of the nerve, preventing the transmission of pain and favoring that in the post-operative period it decreases and even makes the pain non-existent. Likewise, anesthesia with nerve blocks allows less use of medications such as morphine and side effects of medication are avoided.
What is anesthesia with nerve blocks?
An anesthesia with nerve blocks can be performed in two ways: by neuro-stimulation or echo-guided. In our case, we do not act directly on the nerve, but rather we act along the path of the nerves, between muscle layers, a technique called inter-facial blocks.
Using the ultrasound we look for those muscles, we bring the needle closer and introduce it between the two layers of the muscles and that is where we apply local anesthesia, whose action puts the nerve to sleep, hence the name of nerve blocks. When the nerve falls asleep, it happens as happened with the bulbs of the old Christmas tree lights that, when one was damaged, from then on did not conduct.
Using this technique of applying anesthesia with nerve blocks, it is as if you cut the nerve, from the point where the local anesthesia is applied onwards there is no nerve conduction, therefore, there is no transmission of the stimulus and consequently there is no perception of pain. before it occurs. By not feeling pain during surgery, the post-operative period is much less painful because a person cannot miss what he does not know: if the body did not know a painful stimulus, the post-operative period will be painless.
In addition to reducing pain, what is the advantage of using anesthesia through nerve blocks?
Another of the main advantages of using the combination of general anesthesia with nerve block anesthesia is that it allows the use of less medication during surgery since pain is completely inhibited.
Morphic-type drugs are not free of side effects. In the case of plastic surgeries, a person who vomits due to the effect of morphine is going to be prone to certain complications such as bruises or hemorrhages in the post-operative period, even if the sutures open and the aesthetic effect is not good. . No technique is exempt from complications, nor is anesthesia through nerve blocks, but it allows us to make the post-operative period much more pleasant and the patient to feel much less pain.
How long does anesthesia for nerve blocks take and how long do their effects last?
Depending on the person and the type of cosmetic surgery to be performed, the application of anesthesia for nerve blocks usually takes about 45 minutes in a full body surgery. Dr. Cristina Brasó has found that applying anesthesia through the nerve block system is more comfortable and pleasant for patients in the post-operative period, and for this reason she works closely in all interventions with Dr. Juan Bernardo Shuitemaker, anesthesiologist doctor.
The time of greatest pain of a full body plastic surgery occurs between 6 to 8 hours of the immediate post-operative period. Since we use local anesthetics of intermediate evolution with vasoconstrictors that inhibit the absorption of this local anesthetic, we achieve that the effect of nerve block anesthesia lasts between 18 and 24 hours and, consequently, the patient is completely pain-free during the procedure. immediate post-operative. In addition, when the effect of the anesthesia that causes the nerve block wears off, the residual pain will be less or non-existent and, therefore, the patient’s post-operative period will be much better.
