Complications and mistakes in cosmetic surgery
Excerpt from Dr. Max Sawaf’s new book
"Anti-Aging Made Simple"
Keloid scar following the a small removal of skin lesion
Wrong hair line from a bad hair transplant.
Bumpiness and irregularity from injecting filler from unapproved Ukraine
The goal of any plastic surgery is to create a beautiful, youthful, and natural appearance. Because surgery is an art and not an exact science, the cosmetic surgery outcome may not always be favourable. Most “complications” of cosmetic surgery are not true complications but rather unrealized expectations; “I thought I would be thinner after the liposuction”; “my transplanted hair is not as dense as I thought, and “my new nose is not as great” and so on. The American Plastic and reconstructive Society reported in 2004 that one out of every ten patients who underwent surgery in the USA that year was not satisfied with their surgery. In some cases, however, true complications do occur.
How the patient heals is often the greatest contributor to undesired results. Some patients form excessive scarring both internally or externally, leading to mal-position or malfunction of the tissues. Outdated techniques, under-experienced or poorly trained surgeons, poor judgment, misinterpretations of the underlying problem, or chance may also play a role in an unsatisfactory outcome. Often, plastic surgery mistakes will correct themselves over time, but when the bad plastic surgery is on the most visible part of your body, that is your face, the results can be devastating, and a solution to the problem should be sought.
As we are the busiest cosmetic surgery center in the Middle East, it would be normal to have complications. A surgeon or a center that has never had a complication is either not being truthful or is not busy and not experienced. The correct question to ask is how serious were the complications and how often they occurs.
Out of 5238 major cosmetic surgeries performed at CosmeSurge from 2000-2005, we did not have a single death or a single admission to the intensive care unit.
We had no one experience a complication resulting in mutilation or serious deformity. However, we had 41 cases were the wound got a superficial infection, seven cases of small sloughing of the skin after major tummy tucks, four cases of small wound sloughing after breast reduction, one case of an ectropion after eyelid surgery requiring a small skin graft and three cases of the scar healing badly (keloid). Only two cases of liposuction got infected out of 2042 liposuction cases, representing an infection rate of less than one in a thousand. Our complications and infection rates compare favourably with the best centers in the USA. We have never paid a penny to a patient due to a law suit.
In contrast, cosmetic surgeons are sued more than any other specialty in the USA, with breast surgery being the number one reason.
At CosmeSurge, we are frequently consulted by our colleagues for our expertise in revising and correcting bad plastic surgery results. Since we have a team of sub-specialists each specializing in a different area of facial, body, and reconstructive surgery including hair transplantation and chemical peels, we became known for taking a lot of facial plastic surgery mistakes and turn them into success stories.
The most common facial surgery complications relate to bad eyelid surgery, bad nose surgery or bad facelifts. In the body the most common are bad breast surgeries and bad hair transplantations.
Of course, any surgery has inherent risks and potential complications. However, there are some measures you can take to minimize your risk. Before consenting to plastic surgery, it is important to know what procedures your doctor specializes in, how many he or she has performed and how recently, and research his or her track record and reputation. Try to get a referral to a cosmetic surgeon from a doctor or a friend who has had a procedure similar to one you are considering. Ask him to give you names of patients who had similar operations.
Plan to be in your best physical health before having surgery, and agree to follow pre- and post-operative instructions, which are designed to optimize your result. Quitting smoking before any kind of surgery decreases anesthesia risks, wound infection, blood clots in the legs and allows for better scars and a faster recovery.
Discuss with your surgeon the anticipated and realistic results. Finally, evaluate your surgeon for the three A’s: affability, ability, and availability. Above all he must give you good and honest professional advice. Good plastic surgeons are relatively expensive. You cannot afford cheap surgeons, cheap surgery centers or worse; office based surgery. When it comes to your most precious things, your face and your body, cheap can get very expensive. Your surgeon backed by a good team will handle any complication in the unlikely event that one does occur.
There are limits to what we can do in terms of correcting mistakes. Your best bet is to get it right at the first time. Fortunately, in the right hands, bad plastic surgery outcomes are rare. But if you are the “one-in-a-hundred” with a plastic surgery mistake, then you are the one that matters!
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