Blood loss during liposuction using the tumescent technique.

Blood loss during liposuction has been a concern when more than 1500 mL of material are removed during one session. Several authors have claimed that blood loss is dramatically reduced when the targeted area is infiltrated with large amounts of dilute lidocaine with epinephrine ("tumescent" or "superwet" technique). Using this technique, 25 consecutive cases in which the liposuction aspirate was expected to be 1000 mL or more were investigated with pre- and postoperative measurements of hemoglobin. In addition, hemoglobin was also measured in the fluid fraction of the aspirate. The mean +/- SD aspirated volume was 1658 +/- 518 mL and the mean +/- SD fall in postoperative hemoglobin was 0.7 +/- 0.6 g/100 mL (5.4% +/- 4.9%). The mean amount of blood per liter of aspirate was calculated to be 10.5 +/- 5.2 mL. These results clearly demonstrate that the blood loss when using the tumescent or superwet technique is dramatically reduced compared with the dry or classical "wet" technique.