Doctors raise alarm over botched plastic surgeries
WHEN NOT DONE BY LICENSED EXPERTS, COSMETIC SURGERIES CAN LEAD TO DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES
Doctors in the UAE say they have received a staggering amount of cases of botched plastic surgery victims, due to “unlicensed and unauthorised” doctors performing cosmetic procedures.
The procedures include buttocks enlargement, liposuction, breast augmentation, as well as facial botox and fillers.
Dr Leon Alexander, specialist plastic surgery, Universal Hospital, told Khaleej Times that he receives at least one patient every month who fell in the trap of an unlicensed practitioner. “This shouldn’t be happening, but the truth is — it is happening everywhere.”
He shared a number of cases, which he noted has caused devastating outcomes for each victim.
“One lady had a breast augmentation in a clinic in Sharjah by an unlicensed cosmetic surgeon and she ended up with severe infection and absences in both breasts.” He said the woman was in agonising pain and developed psychological problems due to her botched surgery.
Dr Alexander stressed that procedures must be done in an operating room under sterilised conditions. But there are countless cases of patients who were operated on in the wrong environments, by the wrong hands.
He said that he has also received male patients who underwent unauthorised tummy-tuck procedures, with infections in the abdomen side.
“Various so-called doctors and clinics are putting people’s lives in danger by performing procedures that they are legally not allowed to,” he added.
“I have seen one company, which is a distributor for liposuction, conduct a workshop in a clinic in Abu Dhabi. The workshop was supposedly done by experts, but the person who was performing the procedure was unlicensed. Even the people assisting him were unlicensed. It was very shocking,” he added.
Devastating consequences
Dr Abdulbaqi Alkhatib, consultant plastic surgeon at Burjeel Hospital, said he too had witnessed too many victims who had suffered from complications due to unauthorised cosmetic procedures.
“I have treated a considerable number of cases with complications after cosmetic procedures, surgical and non-surgical.” Some of the common complications after non-surgical cosmetic procedures include post-filler injection in the face.
“This includes lip necrosis, which causes the death of most or all cells in the organ, as well as swelling — infection, abscess of soft tissues and nodular granuloma.”
Another popular cosmetic treatment — injection in the buttocks, also known as the ‘Brazilian Butt Lift’ — has seen mountains of botched procedures. The complications in the procedure also include nodular granuloma, infection and abscess formation, as well as severe migration of the product to other parts of the body.
“Most of these cases were done by non-professionals and are sometimes injected at home with unknown product or were done by doctors without enough medical experience,” added Dr Alkhatib.
Dr Alkhatib said that unauthorised breast augmentation or breast reduction surgeries have also caused severe complications to many women in the UAE.
The complications include nipple and areola necrosis, skin necrosis, as well as asymmetry.
He has also seen patients who underwent abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) by unlicensed practitioners, and faced severe complications, including the re-opening of the wound, asymmetry, skin necrosis, hematoma — a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues — and seroma, which is a pocket of clear serous fluid developed in the body after surgery.
“In my opinion, these complications occur because the procedure was performed by a surgeon without enough experience, or by a surgeon who was doing multiple procedures at the same stage, or by discharging the patient on the same day of the procedure.”
Dr Leon Alexander said that it shocks him that unlicensed practitioners are putting people’s lives in jeopardy.
He said that although the practitioners might be doctors, they often market themselves as cosmetic medicine experts, or cosmetic and anti-aging specialists.
“These are new terminologies they use, but they are not licensed to do these procedures, yet they market themselves as such and victims fall in their trap,” said Dr Alexander.