A rise in deaths following ‘Brazilian Butt Lift’ (BBL) surgery has triggered US concerns about the number of “daily surgeries a doctor can perform safely”.
Despite BBL being “known to be the most dangerous of all cosmetic surgery procedures”, demand post-Covid has “shown no signs of slowing down” reported newbeauty.com.
In Miami, experts who spoke to NBC 6 noted the 2020 lockdowns “caused elective surgeries to be put on the back burner”, leading to BBL deaths rising in 2021 amid “an increase in overbooking procedures” – with some surgeons advocating “this spike in south Florida fatalities signals a need to put limits on how many procedures a plastic surgeon can perform on the same day”.
At a recent cosmetic surgery symposium, New York practitioner Dr Daniel Del Vecchio proposed limiting BBLs to three surgeries a day; but others argued proper training is the best solution.
Oregon plastic surgeon Dr Mark Jewell said “if the surgeon is trained in BBL surgery and competent with regards to where the fat is placed, above the fascia, this should not be an issue. But I don’t think anyone would want to be doing more than three cases a day anyway.”
Following several task forces to evaluate the dangers of BBL surgery, plus guidance and recommendations provided by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons to improve safety, California plastic surgeon Dr Robert Singer said the procedure “has become safer, but the unfortunate thing is even though somebody knows they shouldn’t reinject the fat into the gluteal muscle, the end of the cannula doesn’t have eyes on it – so there is still room for errors to occur even with the best surgeons”.
Texas plastic surgeon Dr Courtney El-Zokm noted “what is high volume for some may not be for others” and emphasised “the definition of high volume needs to be defined based on the particular surgeon’s practice; for example doing multiple blepharoplasties in a day is completely different than doing multiple ‘Mommy Makeovers’ that are more labour intensive”.
However Arizona plastic surgeon Dr Raman Mahabir warned he doesn’t perform BBLs because he doesn’t want “to take the risks that come with that surgery” and also doesn’t believe “coming up with a number of surgeries a doctor should perform” will be the solution.
He summed up bluntly: “Everyone’s trying to come up with a way to pass the buck and say it’s still safe and you should still do it, but the data is not there that you can see. So a lot of people, myself included, have just said I don’t need to do that operation. . . It’s not worth the risk for some fashion trend which I think will go away.” AMP
