Tumescent Anesthesia

Tumescent anesthesia is a surgical technique for delivering local anesthesia that also makes the target tissue firm and turgid from absorbed water, which can aid certain procedures. It was originally devised for use in liposuction but has since been applied to other surgical situations, including plastic surgery, burn care and vascular surgery, and is a relatively safe way to achieve extensive regional anesthesia of the skin and subcutaneous tissue with a high total dose of anesthetic but a low risk of systemic toxicity. The technique works by subcutaneously infiltrating a large volume of very dilute lidocaine and epinephrine, causing the targeted tissue to become swollen and firm, or tumescent, which permits otherwise painful procedures to be performed without subjecting the patient to the risks of general anesthesia and with reduced blood loss due to the vasoconstriction the epinephrine induces.