Thursday, February 28, 2013

COSMETIC PROCEDURES - POPULARITY CONTINUES

Fewer Americans seem to be frowning on cosmetic plastic surgery.
People may be struggling with gas prices and health care costs, but cosmetic plastic surgery procedures rose 5% from 2011 to 2012, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports. Last year, 14.6 million procedures, including minimally invasive and surgical, were performed in the U.S., according to the organization's annual statistics. "For the third consecutive year, the overall growth in cosmetic surgery continues to be driven by a significant rise in minimally invasive procedures, while surgical procedures remain relatively stable," ASPS President Gregory Evans said in a statement. Minimally invasive procedures include treatments such as Botox, chemical peels and laser hair removal.



Saturday, February 23, 2013

CANINE PLASTIC SURGERY - ANOTHER STUPID IDEA

A Chinese man is suing his veterinarian for 880,000 yuan (over $140,000) after his male Tibetan Mastiff died during a facelift aimed at making him "more attractive" to female mates.
"The skin of my dog's head was very flabby, so I wanted to cut part of his forehead and straighten the skin. And also in this way, his hair would look longer as the rear part of the head will have more hair," the man, who goes by the name Yu, told the Global Times.
"If my dog looks better, female dog owners will pay a higher price when they want to mate their dog with mine," he added, ever the reasonable pet owner.
The poor pup didn't make it through the surgery, suffering from a heart attack as a result of complications with the anesthetic, according to the Daily Mail.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

KATE'S NOSE IN DEMAND


Kate Middleton is an icon of style, grace and beauty, and women have been trying to emulate virtually everything about her. Her hair, her wedding gown, her engagement dress - they've all been copied by adoring admirers around the world. But the obsession now goes way beyond fashion. Some women want the Duchess of Cambridge's nose. Jessica Blaier wanted it so badly that right after Middleton's wedding to Britain's Prince William in 2011, Blaier carried a photo of the duchess' face to Dr. Thomas Romo III, director of facial plastic surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. She paid the plastic surgeon $12,000 to have him change her nose to look like Middleton's.  Jessica Blaier, right, paid to have her nose altered to look more like Kate Middleton's.) "Every time she smiled I was like 'Wow! I want my nose to be like that,'" the 21-year-old woman told "Good Morning America" in an interview that aired on the show.
Blaier said she's always felt that her nose was too big for her face, and she hated the way the tip dropped when she smiled. She said she's "thrilled" with the results of her procedure.



Saturday, February 16, 2013

SO YOU WANT TO BE A PLASTIC SURGEON

It is a truth universally acknowledged that plastic surgery is the most elusive residency in the United States. Unlike most other major surgical subspecialties, there are two well-defined routes to becoming a plastic surgeon—the independent and integrated pathways.1 The integrated pathway consists of 6-year training programs that accept graduating medical students, whereas the independent pathway consists of 3-year training programs that accept graduates of general surgery, neurological surgery, orthopedic surgery, oral and maxillofacial surgery, otolaryngology, and urology residency programs. Both pathways are very competitive—in 2011, only 44 percent of U.S. seniors applying to integrated plastic surgery programs matched into the specialty.2 For comparison, the next lowest match rate belonged to orthopedic surgery, at 77 percent. The competitiveness of the independent pathway has diminished slightly since the training program was lengthened from 2 years to 3 years, but it remains in high demand, with the match rate ranging between 39 and 82 percent over the past 5 years.3,4 Clearly, plastic surgery program directors enjoy a buyer's market.

CONSUMER BEWARE - CHECK CREDENTIALS

MYTH: Cosmetic surgery can be performed by any doctor.

FACT: In-depth training as well as a lot of experience are needed to perform plastic, cosmetic, and reconstructive surgery.
If a physician from another specialty does a weekend course on cosmetic surgery, this in no way qualifies them as a board certified cosmetic surgeon. Dr. Malcolm Z. Roth, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said in September 2011 that one of the major problems in cosmetic surgery is the lack of proper training and practical skills which causes rookie surgeons to leave patients with some serious problems, including excessive scarring, the removal of too much fat, infections, and even gangrene.
Dr. Roth, said "Sometimes, lengthy procedures will be done on people who are not medically suitable for them ..... If you have somebody who's not surgically trained, they [don't know] how to decide who's a good or bad candidate for surgery. We've had people go to the ER with deep vein thrombosis, heart attacks, and unfortunately, not infrequently now, we're hearing about death."

The safest places for surgical procedures are:
accredited hospitals
certified out-patient facilities

Dr. Elan Reisin, medical director of Star Plastic Surgery, said: "Often, physicians who are not board certified in plastic surgery do not have privileges to perform plastic surgery procedures and are only able to do them in their office setting, which may put you at risk." Patients should see a plastic surgeon who is board certified in reconstructive and plastic surgery, suggested Dr. Reisin.

A previous campaign by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons announced that patients should check out their doctor's qualifications before allowing them to perform a plastic surgery procedure.Training for both general surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery needs to be completed in order for plastic surgeons to be board certified. Additionally, when a cosmetic surgeon is board certified it means they he/she has spent 3 to 5 years of residency or fellowship training centered primarily on plastic surgery.
Dr. Reisin made a list of five questions that every patient should ask before selecting a surgeon:

1. Are you board certified in plastic and reconstructive surgery
2. Do you practice another specialty besides plastic surgery? Or do you only practice plastic surgery?
3. Did you complete a residency in general surgery AND in plastic surgery?
4. Does your malpractice insurance cover the surgical operations that I am thinking about?
5.Do you have privileges to perform the plastic surgery procedures that I am thinking about in hospitals? Which hospitals?

STEM CELL RESEARCH - SKIN GRAFTS

Researchers at the University of Calgary are hoping skin stem cells will improve skin grafts for burn victims.

The project is focused on people who require skin grafts after a deep burn injury where many layers of skin have been destroyed. Right now, doctors only use the outer layers, or epidermis, to repair the wound, but those layers lack some important functions found in deeper skin, or dermis. "The dermis is important because that's where all the nerve endings, the hair follicles, the oil glands and sweat glands are," said Dr. Vincent Gabriel.
Don Adamson required 15 surgeries to repair his skin after his gas tank exploded while he was driving home.Adamson says he found the new skin simply did not work the same way after the skin grafts.
"I noticed [the] first time I went out and tried to shovel snow I nearly froze my hands and I didn't know it," said Adamson.
Dr. Jeff Biernaskie says this project will try to recreate normal skin.
"It may be possible to generate dermal stem cells from the patient and actually transplant them into the skin graft in order to regenerate the dermis and improve the overall function of that grafted skin."



U.S.A. #1

The USA remains the plastic surgery capital of the world when it comes to sheer numbers of lifts, tucks and implants, an international survey shows. Brazil is not far behind, according to the latest analysis from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. But rates by population actually are higher in South Korea, Greece and Italy, where more than 10 procedures were performed for every 1,000 people in 2011, according to a breakdown of the data by the Economist.