Increasingly in demand, the Brazilian Butt Lift has the highest mortality rate of all cosmetic surgery operations.
“I did my nose, my mouth, my breasts and a lipofilling. I fell into a vicious circle, I find it difficult to stop (…) the surgery, as soon as you start to do the nose, the breasts, you want to do this, you want to do that “. Like the reality TV star Léana in France, or Kim Kardashian in the United States, more and more women are having their buttocks redone so that they are voluminous. In five years, the number of such operations has doubled around the world.
32 fatal cases
However, this intervention has the highest mortality rate of all cosmetic surgery operations, warns the American Association of Plastic Surgery. The operation involves taking fat from another part of the body to transfer it to the buttocks. In order for the material to stay in place, it must be injected into tissue supplied with blood. But if it passes through the veins, it can clog them and cause fat embolism. 32 fatal cases and 103 cases of non-fatal complications have already been identified.
Famous in Brazil, Denis Furtado, alias “Dr Popotin”, is thus wanted by the Brazilian authorities after the death of one of his patients, who was operated on the buttocks clandestinely at his home. Operated on July 15 in the plastic surgeon’s apartment in Barra da Tijuca, an upscale neighborhood in Rio, the patient was finally hospitalized after becoming unwell. Following four cardiac arrests, Lilian Quezia Calixto died.
A lot of people are selling an illusion
The Brazilian Society of Aesthetic Surgery (SBPC) denounces an “intrusion of non-specialists which is causing more and more fatal cases like this one”. Its president Niveo Steffen explains to AFP: “You cannot perform cosmetic surgery in an apartment. Many people sell an illusion, a fantasy, devoid of any ethics, to fragile people attracted by low prices”.
“Previously, patients came to consult with images of the celebrity they wanted to look like”, also explain the professionals in the review JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery. “Today we are facing a new phenomenon, called Snapchat dysmorphia. It refers to patients who want to look like filtered versions of themselves, with fuller lips, bigger eyes or a thinner nose,” they continue.
“This is an alarming trend” for cosmetic surgeons around the world. In the United States, in 2017, 55% of them said they now face patients wishing to improve the physical appearance of their selfie through an operation, against 42% in 2015.
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