What is Exparel?

The question I'm always asked is about how do I make the recovery from a tummy tuck somewhat better. And I wanted to just take a brief minute to talk about a drug that I like to use called Expiril. It is a long acting anesthetic that the molecule of the medication is put into a liposome. It's into a little structure that then releases it over time. So basically I inject it into the area where I've operated and then for the next up to 3, 4 days for some patients, there's a numbing medication right in that area that's being slowly released into the system and giving you some pain medication, some pain management. So a lot of my tummy tucks feel great day one and day two, and then as that medication starts to teeter off, they feel okay. And then they, they basically use less narcotic, which is great because nobody wants to be on narcotics and nobody wants the down effect, the side effects of narcotics, including the constipation and the just not feeling great overall. So Exparel is something that I will use basically in all my tummy tucks. And then I also utilize it for primary breast augmentations or breast lifts with an implant placement. So I don't use it on everybody. I only use it in cases where I feel like there's a benefit to its use use. It does cost extra and obviously complications with it are very few, but can happen. So I'm careful with what I use it for and I use it on patients where I feel like there's really a good benefit.