Donde West Likely Killed By Need to Control Postop Pain After Cosmetic Surgery

CORONA DEL MAR, Calif., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The autopsy results for Donde West, mother of rapper Kanye West, were reported as inconclusive. What does 'inconclusive' mean? There were no physical findings to explain her death.

Examples of physical findings are: 1) blood clot in the lung veins 2) heart attack 3) vomit in the breathing tubes 4) fluid in the lung tissue West was reportedly found not breathing (respiratory arrest) after cosmetic surgery that included two major procedures: abdominoplasty ('tummy tuck') and breast reduction.

Narcotics (opioids) like codeine or Vicodin (synthetic codeine) are commonly used to manage postop pain. The worst side effect of these medications is a stoppage of breathing when too high a blood level is reached after too much pain medicine is taken.

"If West had sleep apnea as a pre-existing condition, even average doses of narcotics could easily prove fatal. The pending toxicology study of her blood levels might then be reported as within 'reasonable' levels for patients without sleep apnea," claims Dr. Barry Friedberg.

On rare occasions, patients having abdominoplasty with breast reduction have been admitted to a hospital for continuous intravenous (IV) narcotic therapy to control postop pain.

"For cosmetic surgery, I pioneered BIS-monitored, propofol ketamine IV sedation known as minimally invasive anesthesia (MIA)®. MIA mimics general anesthesia but, because of the lesser drug trespass, is safer and simpler. No deaths or hospital admissions have occurred with MIA in a decade," says Friedberg.

"Unlike general anesthesia, MIA prevents the pain of the local anesthetic injection from reaching the brain. This phenomenon is called pre-emptive analgesia. No patients, including those having abdominoplasty and breast reduction, under MIA have needed narcotics (IV or oral) for postop pain in 10 years," states Friedberg.

"It was unlikely that either the two surgeries or the 8 hour surgery caused West's death. More likely, it was the manner in which the surgery was performed; i.e. under general anesthesia which does not reliably produce pre-emptive analgesia and, therefore, often necessitates postop narcotics to manage pain," claims Friedberg.

Barry L. Friedberg, M.D., a board certified anesthesiologist, has been exclusively practicing office-based anesthesia for cosmetic surgery since 1992. In 2004, he was chosen first among 40,000 US anesthesiologists to write Anesthesia in Cosmetic Surgery, the first textbook in the field.

More information can be found @ http://www.cosmeticsurgeryanesthesia.com, a patient oriented, non-commercial web site.

Contact: Barry L. Friedberg, M.D. Cosmetic Surgery Anesthesia (949) 233-8845