This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on Web of Science (2)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: In a Research Letter about injuries from surgical procedures performed in Florida medical offices, Dr Coldiron¹ contends that "liposuction under general anesthesia may deserve closer scrutiny since many of the most serious complications occurred with this procedure." Recent findings underscore his concern, because liposuction has been linked nationwide to a higher fatality rate than other surgical procedures.² However, the 76 Florida medical office incidents reported from February 1999 through December 2000 (summarized on Coldiron's Web site³) offer no evidence that liposuction using general anesthesia—the technique preferred by plastic surgeons—is intrinsically less safe than liposuction using field block (tumescent) anesthesia—the technique favored by dermatologic surgeons. Rather, the data decisively support the more troubling conclusion that any liposuction surgery causes relatively more adverse incidents in office practice than other procedures.

Of the 76 office incidents summarized by Coldiron,³ 31 were triggered by surgical procedures. Sixteen (52%) of these . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?