Mt Vernon - Cosmetic Surgeons

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) have expressed delight over the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ruling on their recent advertising campaign. The BAAPS was concerned that should the ASA have agreed with the sole complainant, from a commercial clinic, that formal training is not essential to perform cosmetic procedures, it would have rendered databases such as the General Medical Council’s Specialist Register useless. They also thought it would have thrown the public into fresh confusion regarding practitioner qualifications.

The advert portrayed a life-sized scalpel in gritty black and white and urged patients to check surgeon credentials.

According to Douglas McGeorge, former BAAPS President and consultant plastic surgeon who spearheaded the campaign in 2008: “For a long time the BAAPS had grown increasingly concerned about the standard and style of cosmetic surgery advertising, designed to encourage and incentivise people to undergo procedures. Our ad was designed to get patients to stop and consider carefully what’s involved, to ensure safe and happy outcomes.”

Despite this straightforward objective, a private cosmetic surgery provider complained to the ASA that there is no qualification for cosmetic surgery in the UK and that experience could equate to formal training.

According to BAAPS President, Nigel Mercer: “We’re pleased that the ASA did not uphold these complaints. We have always advised patients to check their surgeon is on the Specialist Register of the GMC before undergoing treatment. All BAAPS surgeons must be on this Register, have held a substantive consultant post in the NHS and be recommended by members who vouch for them. In addition they must submit an annual audit. The objective of our advert was to make people think twice about who would be holding the scalpel and what the risks of surgery might be – we hope we have achieved that.”

A study has found that  VASER Lipo treatment demonstrated 53% improvement in skin retraction per mL of aspirate removed relative to the standard method. There was also a 26% reduction in blood loss.

This is the first study to demonstrate statistically significant and clinically relevant improvements in a new lipoplasty technology.

“Physicians have been reporting skin tightening benefits and reduced blood loss with the VASER Lipo System since the technology was released in 2002,” said Dan Goldberger, CEO of Sound Surgical Technologies LLC.  “This study now provides empirical evidence of yet another advantage of using VASER ultrasonic energy in all body contouring procedures.”

The study involved twenty female patients between the ages of 20 and 48 who received treatment with traditional liposuction and VASER Lipo in one or more anatomical regions that included the upper arms, upper back, flanks, outer thighs, and inner thighs for a total of 33 regions. Skin retraction was measured using changes in UV tattoos placed prior to surgery.

VASER ultrasonic energy is able to selectively liquefy fat while preserving important tissue structures vital to natural skin tightening. By preserving nerves, blood vessels and collagen, physicians report also experience minimal to no pain and bruising post-operatively allowing for a fast return to normal activities.

The blinding, debilitating pain of a migraine can be a thing of the past as a new surgical technique offers hope to millions of sufferers.

A five-year study has found that almost nine out of ten migraine sufferers who have had surgery to treat the condition responded well. One in three found that they no longer suffered any more pain.

 The technique involves making fairly superficial cuts into the muscle and nerves that take messages from the surface of the head into the brain, where they are perceived as pain. It was discovered accidently when plastic surgeon, Dr Bahman Guyuron, noticed patients who had undergone a face lift that included a brow lift, where the skin over the forehead was separated from the underlying tissue, reported a dramatic improvement in their migraine symptoms.

Dr Guyuron, from Cleveland in Ohio, has now performed more than 1,000 procedures on 450 migraine sufferers over the past decade and thinks that cutting the muscle makes it less likely that the nerves passing through the area get put under pressure, so the migraine never starts.  

“Migraine headaches are extremely disabling and this surgical option offers hope for migraine sufferers,” said Dr Guyuron.

There are 190,000 migraine attacks in Britain a day, with 25million working or school days lost every year. The condition affects one in four women and one in 12 men.

Yu Zhenhuan, 32, from the northern Chinese province of Liaoning, has hair on 96 per cent of his body because of a hormone imbalance. Surgery will not only improve his looks but save his life.

“I am going to have surgery to get rid of the hair and facial plastic surgery to make myself look more like a pretty monkey,” said Yu.

A plastic surgeon, interviewed by the China Youth Times, said Mr Yu needed extensive work on his eyes, nose and lips. “Yu has small, single-lidded eyes. He needs to have them widened. The tip of his nose is too big and the bridge is not high enough.” Life has been far from easy. Yu has had five other operations to remove hair from his nose and repair his gums, which were engulfing his teeth.

Yu, who uses the name “woolboy” in English for his email, is covered with an average of 41 hairs per sq cm (0.16 sq in) of his skin plus a condition doctors call atavism.

“I’ve had a lot of trouble having so much hair all over my body since I was young, physically and mentally. It’s a price that I have to pay,” said Yu, whose eyelashes are so long they hide his eyes.

Yu said after the surgery is completed, he will win people over with his “friendly features”.

Previously Yu has had treatment to remove some of his hair, in order to cool himself down in summer and clear his eyes. He said his girlfriend had no issues with his hirsute appearance. “We are doing great. She doesn’t mind the hair at all,” he told the Youth Times.

A digitally manipulated Ralph Lauren ad, featuring a model with hips narrower than her head, has become the latest focus of the ongoing criticism of electronically altered fashion spreads. Critics believe such images are harming women by promoting a standard of beauty so false that it can be achieved solely by manipulating a photograph of an already slender model.

At the Liberal Democrat party conference in September, they called for the prohibition of faked photos that present “overly perfected and unrealistic images” of women in ads aimed at children and warning labels on similar ads aimed at adults. French parliamentarians have called for warning labels on manipulated images. The representative Valérie Boyer, a leading proponent of such a law, sees it as an ordinary matter of truth in advertising. “Rules on food-labelling let consumers know the origins of the contents and the presence of things like additives and preservatives,” she said. What’s wrong with “informing them when photographs have also been modified from their original form?”

Others argue that fashion ads are inherently false. Beautiful models are worked on by makeup artists and hair stylists, they are illuminated by lighting designers and shot by sophisticated photographers. In such a context, where can we draw the line on deceit?