Revision body contouring can be a challenge even in the most expert of hands, according to plastic surgeons speaking at the annual meeting of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), being held in Vancouver, Canada.
Surgeons may start to receive an influx of these cases as growing numbers of Americans undergo back-alley procedures by unlicensed and unqualified practitioners to curb costs.
In particular, revision of contour deformities and burns from laser- and ultrasound-assisted procedures can be extremely demanding and may not yield an optimal result.
“The artistry and skill of plastic surgery is really put to the test when you take on the challenge of improving upon previous surgery,” says Pittsburgh plastic surgeon J. Peter Rubin, MD, in a press release. “It is a far different situation from performing a procedure on a patient who has never had an operation on that part of the body."
Managing patient expectations is also a big part of this, he says. Some outcomes may not be as expected due to unpredictable complications or variables in the healing process, requiring the surgeon to go back in for further revision.
But there are options to treat these challenging cases. “Fat grafting is one of the techniques I have successfully used to improve suboptimal liposuction results for both simple and complex cases,” says Kristoffer Ning Chang, MD, a plastic surgeon in of San Francisco, CA.
[Source: ASAPS ]
