Aesthetic surgery journal
-
Aesthetic surgery journal · Jan 2014
Beyond the operating room: a look at legal liability in body contouring procedures.
Malpractice claims affect the cost and quality of health care. ⋯ Based on this study of body contouring litigation, younger plaintiff age and iatrogenic injury strongly favored plaintiffs in either awarded damages or a settlement. Disfigurement favored plaintiffs only in awarded damages. Our study emphasizes the need for adequate communication with the patient explaining realistic aesthetic results and risks of the procedure. In addition, iatrogenic organ injury must be handled expeditiously. Incorporating these recommendations into clinical practice may promote an improved physician-patient relationship while reducing litigatious health care costs.
-
Aesthetic surgery journal · Jan 2014
Complications following reduction mammaplasty: a review of 3538 cases from the 2005-2010 NSQIP data sets.
Reduction mammaplasty is an established and effective technique to treat symptomatic macromastia. Variable rates of complications have been reported, and there is a continued need for better outcome assessment studies. ⋯ This study demonstrates overall incidence of complications in 1 in 20 patients and a 1 in 50 incidence of a major surgical complication. Noteworthy findings include the identification of morbid obesity as a significant predictor of overall morbidity and active smoking as a strong predictor of major surgical morbidity. These data can assist surgeons in preoperative counseling and enhance perioperative decision making.
-
Aesthetic surgery journal · Jan 2014
Patterns of preoperative laboratory testing in patients undergoing outpatient plastic surgery procedures.
Preoperative laboratory testing is commonplace in the clinical setting and is often utilized at surgeon discretion. We searched the American College of Surgeons-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) data set to determine the impact of preoperative laboratory testing in ambulatory plastic surgery patients. ⋯ We found no association between abnormal laboratory testing and postoperative morbidity. Preoperative testing in low-risk ambulatory plastic surgery patients may be costly and has limited direct clinical benefit.
-
Aesthetic surgery journal · Jan 2014
Application of the Caprini risk assessment model in evaluation of non-venous thromboembolism complications in plastic and reconstructive surgery patients.
The Caprini Risk Assessment Model is used to categorize patient risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) events; its predictive associations have been repeatedly corroborated. Calculating scores involves consideration of systemic factors that may predict other postoperative complications. ⋯ Caprini scores can be used as valuable predictors for some non-VTE postoperative complications (dehiscence, infection, seroma, hematoma, and necrosis). In addition to VTE events, clinicians should pay special attention to clinical signs indicative of the complications listed above when dealing with high-risk, high-Caprini score patients.