Deaths Related to Liposuction

To the Editor: Rao et al. (May 13 issue) 1 reported five deaths that were related to tumescent liposuction over a five-year period. In San Diego, California, six cases of cardiac arrest or severe hypoxemia associated with outpatient liposuction were identified between November 1992 and May 1996. The patients were women 38 to 62 years old. Four had respiratory difficulty and cardiac arrest after liposuction had been completed, one had respiratory difficulty during liposuction, and one had respiratory difficulty and cardiac arrest after sedation and the administration of local anesthetic but before liposuction was initiated. Four of the women died. The . . .