■Chimp-attack victim gets approval for face and hand transplants
Charla Nash, whose face and hands were destroyed when a friend's pet chimpanzee attacked her, has passed pre-operative evaluations and is eligible for a face and hand transplant at Brigham and Women's Hospital when a suitable donor is found. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic previously ruled out Nash as a candidate due to the complexity of her injuries. Surgeons led by plastic surgeon Dr. Bohdan Pomahac at Brigham and Women's are considering whether to perform the hand and face transplants simultaneously, which has been done only once before. The Washington Post/The Associated Press (3/31)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
FACIAL SOFT TISSUE FILLERS
Collagen Fillers (Cosmoplast; Cymetra; Zyderm; Zyplast): Expected Duration: 3-4 months
Hyaluronic Acid Fillers (Juvederm; Restylane; Perlane; Hylaform): Expected Duration: 6-12 months
Calcium Hydroxylapatite Fillers (Radiesse): Expected Duration: 1 year. Seems to be more effective in correcting nasolabial folds than Hyaluronic Acid Fillers
Poly-L-lactic Acid Fillers (Sculptra): Expected Duration: 2 years; Used to restore volume in HIV patients and used for cosmetic purposes. Should not be used in the perioral or periorbital regions because of nodule formation
Polymethyl Methacrylate Fillers (Artefill): Expected Duration: 5 years
Hyaluronic Acid Fillers (Juvederm; Restylane; Perlane; Hylaform): Expected Duration: 6-12 months
Calcium Hydroxylapatite Fillers (Radiesse): Expected Duration: 1 year. Seems to be more effective in correcting nasolabial folds than Hyaluronic Acid Fillers
Poly-L-lactic Acid Fillers (Sculptra): Expected Duration: 2 years; Used to restore volume in HIV patients and used for cosmetic purposes. Should not be used in the perioral or periorbital regions because of nodule formation
Polymethyl Methacrylate Fillers (Artefill): Expected Duration: 5 years
VAMPIRE FACE LIFT
"Vampire Face-lifts": Smooth at First Bite
By Catherine Saint Louis
In this anti-aging age, perhaps it’s unsurprising that vampires—ancient, but with forever-young skin—are a cultural obsession. Now a cosmetic treatment to fill in wrinkles or to plump up hollow cheeks is being marketed as a “vampire filler” or a “vampire face-lift.”
In fact, it’s not surgery, but an in-office procedure that entails having blood drawn from your arm, then spun in a centrifuge to separate out the platelets. They are then injected into your face, with the hope of stimulating new collagen production. Selphyl, as the system is called, arrived on the booming facial-rejuvenation market in 2009, and is now used by roughly 300 doctors nationwide in the name of beauty, says Sanjay Batra, the chief executive of Aesthetic Factors, which manufactures the Selphyl system.
This year, the “vampire face-lift” has been promoted on The Rachael Ray Show and The Doctors. It’s also gotten airtime on more than a dozen local news programs, some of which presented unproved claims that results will last 2 years.
Andrew Ordon, MD, FACS, one of the hosts of The Doctors and a board-certified plastic surgeon, gushed on air, “Vampires have moved into plastic surgery, too, and I’m one of them.” The patient in his segment had also recently had her own fat injected into her face to plump it, so it wasn’t clear that platelets had anything to do with her fresher appearance. (Not that that stopped audience applause.)
Ghoulish as the procedure sounds, some patients prefer the idea of using their own blood rather than a neurotoxin or synthetic filler to rejuvenate their faces. “We all want to look better,” said Joan Sarlo, 56, who underwent a Selphyl “vamp-lift” performed by Lisa A. Zdinak, MD, a Manhattan-based doctor whose specialty is "ophthalmic plastic surgery." But the “less unnatural the better,” Sarlo says. “What could be better than your own blood?”
By Catherine Saint Louis
In this anti-aging age, perhaps it’s unsurprising that vampires—ancient, but with forever-young skin—are a cultural obsession. Now a cosmetic treatment to fill in wrinkles or to plump up hollow cheeks is being marketed as a “vampire filler” or a “vampire face-lift.”
In fact, it’s not surgery, but an in-office procedure that entails having blood drawn from your arm, then spun in a centrifuge to separate out the platelets. They are then injected into your face, with the hope of stimulating new collagen production. Selphyl, as the system is called, arrived on the booming facial-rejuvenation market in 2009, and is now used by roughly 300 doctors nationwide in the name of beauty, says Sanjay Batra, the chief executive of Aesthetic Factors, which manufactures the Selphyl system.
This year, the “vampire face-lift” has been promoted on The Rachael Ray Show and The Doctors. It’s also gotten airtime on more than a dozen local news programs, some of which presented unproved claims that results will last 2 years.
Andrew Ordon, MD, FACS, one of the hosts of The Doctors and a board-certified plastic surgeon, gushed on air, “Vampires have moved into plastic surgery, too, and I’m one of them.” The patient in his segment had also recently had her own fat injected into her face to plump it, so it wasn’t clear that platelets had anything to do with her fresher appearance. (Not that that stopped audience applause.)
Ghoulish as the procedure sounds, some patients prefer the idea of using their own blood rather than a neurotoxin or synthetic filler to rejuvenate their faces. “We all want to look better,” said Joan Sarlo, 56, who underwent a Selphyl “vamp-lift” performed by Lisa A. Zdinak, MD, a Manhattan-based doctor whose specialty is "ophthalmic plastic surgery." But the “less unnatural the better,” Sarlo says. “What could be better than your own blood?”
HEALTH CARE REFORM LAW ONE YEAR LATER
Today, on the one year anniversary since government-approved health care was signed into law, a look at the implementation of the new health care reform reveals how the legislation has failed to deliver on costs, premiums, spending, and preserving Americans’ existing coverage:
19 — States where parents can no longer buy child-only insurance policies as a result of the law
30 — States suing to block the law from taking effect, or requesting waivers from its requirements
51 — Percentage of American workers who will lose their current health coverage by 2013, according to the Administration’s own estimates
1,270 — New bureaucrats requested by the Internal Revenue Service to implement the law this year
$2,100 — Increase in individual insurance premiums due to Obamacare, according to the Congressional Budget Office
$2,500 — Premium reduction promised by candidate Obama “by the end of my first term as President”
6,578 — Pages of new regulations issued implementing Obamacare through March 14, 2011
800,000 — Reduction in the American labor force due to Obamacare provisions that “will effectively increase marginal tax rates, which will also discourage work,” according to the CBO
2,624,720 — Total individuals in 1,040 plans granted waivers thus far exempting them from the law’s insurance mandates; nearly half of whom participate in union plans
7,400,000 — Reduction in Medicare Advantage enrollment as a result of Obamacare, resulting in a loss of choice for seniors and millions of beneficiaries losing their current health plan
40,000,000 — Firms subject to the health law’s new 1099 reporting requirements, which the National Federation of Independent Business called a “tremendous new paperwork compliance burden”
$118,000,000,000 — New costs imposed on states to implement Obamacare—budgetary costs that will lead to reduced services for other state programs like education or to higher state taxes
$310,800,000,000 — Projected increase in health costs due to Obamacare, according to the independent Medicare actuary, who called its promise of lower costs “false, more so than true”
$552,200,000,000 — Amount of higher taxes Americans will pay if Obamacare remains in place
$1,390,000,000,000 — Federal spending on new entitlements during fiscal years 2012-2021 according to the CBO, a 48 percent increase from an earlier estimate
19 — States where parents can no longer buy child-only insurance policies as a result of the law
30 — States suing to block the law from taking effect, or requesting waivers from its requirements
51 — Percentage of American workers who will lose their current health coverage by 2013, according to the Administration’s own estimates
1,270 — New bureaucrats requested by the Internal Revenue Service to implement the law this year
$2,100 — Increase in individual insurance premiums due to Obamacare, according to the Congressional Budget Office
$2,500 — Premium reduction promised by candidate Obama “by the end of my first term as President”
6,578 — Pages of new regulations issued implementing Obamacare through March 14, 2011
800,000 — Reduction in the American labor force due to Obamacare provisions that “will effectively increase marginal tax rates, which will also discourage work,” according to the CBO
2,624,720 — Total individuals in 1,040 plans granted waivers thus far exempting them from the law’s insurance mandates; nearly half of whom participate in union plans
7,400,000 — Reduction in Medicare Advantage enrollment as a result of Obamacare, resulting in a loss of choice for seniors and millions of beneficiaries losing their current health plan
40,000,000 — Firms subject to the health law’s new 1099 reporting requirements, which the National Federation of Independent Business called a “tremendous new paperwork compliance burden”
$118,000,000,000 — New costs imposed on states to implement Obamacare—budgetary costs that will lead to reduced services for other state programs like education or to higher state taxes
$310,800,000,000 — Projected increase in health costs due to Obamacare, according to the independent Medicare actuary, who called its promise of lower costs “false, more so than true”
$552,200,000,000 — Amount of higher taxes Americans will pay if Obamacare remains in place
$1,390,000,000,000 — Federal spending on new entitlements during fiscal years 2012-2021 according to the CBO, a 48 percent increase from an earlier estimate
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