CHEEK OF IT
COAST GIRLS KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS
GOLD Coast surgeons are having to fix “botched” butt surgeries as an increasing number of people try to keep up with the Kardashians and other celebrities.
Advanced Aesthetics’ Dr Dilip Gahankari said while the problem is not as serious here as in the United States, he has seen a number of patients suffering complications after getting the procedure done overseas.
“One of the things which has been a big problem in the US is the Brazilian Butt Lift. It’s certainly a trend in women, to augment their behinds by the transfer of fat,” Dr Gahankari said.
“I think if they’re not done really carefully it can cause major problems.”
Dr Gahankari said procedures are sometimes offered by practitioners who are not qualified plastic surgeons, heightening the risk of serious problems.
“I have seen a couple of procedures, locally offered by non-plastic surgeons, where they undertake the work in office surgeries, under sedation,” he said.
“The major risk there is that fat can get into the blood stream, and there have been reports of some disasters, complications and even death from the surgery.
“I haven’t come across anything that severe, but have seen less than optimal results locally.”
The trend is so worrying in the States, it’s been dubbed the ‘Kardashian effect’.
Two leading American plastic surgeons have warned about the possible “deformed”, “malformed” and “shocking” risks associated with going under the knife and needle.
Dr Paul Nassif and Dr Terry Dubrow said infected butt jobs were one of the most common complaints they saw on E! reality series, Botched, where they fix bad plastic surgery performed by other practitioners.
“We call it the sort of ‘Kardashian effect’. It’s not their fault but the big evolution of complications ... has been in the area of fat transfers to the butt,” Dubrow said.
“As more and more people do it, and more and more doctors put it on their social media sites like it’s no big deal, there are deformities, fatalities, this is not a rarity any more.
“There are taskforces forming regarding this complication.”
One example the respected duo saw was a “mangled deformity” in a 28-year-old bikini model, Dr Dubrow said.
Patients came to the Californian duo because their bums were “gone, destroyed, because they had terrible infections from illegal substances being injected in there.”
“Or ... the fat got into the butt vessels, and knocked off the arterial supply, and parts of their buttock died,” he said.
Dr Dubrow said desperate patients pleaded with the top plastic surgeons to “just make me normal”.
“They’re not even looking for beauty any more. They just want to wear clothing or sit down without pain,” he said.
Some of the botched butt jobs presented on Botched were the result of surgeries that often should never have been performed, the pair agreed.
“If you got to a plastic surgeon and say, ‘I want a gigantic amount of fat injected into my butt cheeks’, and he says ‘that’s too much, that’s dangerous’, just go down the hall to the other one and he’ll say yes,” Dr Dubrow warned. “(American) plastic surgeons can be greedy ... and it’s a real problem.”
Dr Nassif said he rejected between 5 and 10 per cent of requests from his patients because they were unrealistic.