Plastic surgeons have called for greater awareness of the risks of liposuction procedures after a 45-year-old woman suffered a life-threatening collapsed lung as a result of the operation.
The patient underwent the operation last year to remove fat in her abdomen and back and transfer some of it to her buttocks for a ‘fuller’ appearance.
However, within 24 hours of the procedure, the woman experienced chest pain, extremely rapid breathing and a dangerously fast heart rate.
Scans showed her left lung had completely collapsed, meaning air had escaped from the lung, filling the space outside and affecting her ability to breathe oxygen.
The doctors who treated the patient, from Aseer Central Hospital in Saudi Arabia, noted that the exact cause of the problem was unknown, but it is possible that the lung was punctured by instruments used during fat removal in the upper body.
Scans showed her left lung had completely collapsed, meaning air had escaped from the lung, filling the space outside it and affecting her ability to breathe oxygen.
The doctors suggested that the patient’s lung may have been punctured by the cannula used during the fat removal
A chest x-ray of a patient with a large pneumothorax with almost total collapse of the right lung (yellow arrow), a pulmonary bleb – a small collection of air between the lung and the outer surface of the lung – is also shown (red arrow) (stock image)
A collapsed lung, medically known as pneumothorax, is a known risk with liposuction surgery that disrupts the tissue in the upper abdomen.
However, the problem can occur ‘spontaneously’, for no apparent reason.
Commenting on the case, the doctors urged other doctors to ‘raise awareness’ of this danger and ‘introduce more regulations’ – adding that the mortality rate from liposuction procedures is higher than that from car accidents.
About 19 to 20 people per 100,000 die as a result of liposuction procedures, compared to the reported mortality rate of 16 deaths from road traffic accidents.
“Complications are underestimated and underreported,” they wrote in the Journal of Medical case reports.
Liposuction is the removal of fat from parts of the body, including the stomach, hips, thighs, buttocks, arms or neck.
It can be done under local anesthesia.
Typically, a surgeon injects a saline solution into the fat area to break down the fat before suctioning it out using a cannula connected to a vacuum.
In addition to the risk of a collapsed lung, there are several other serious risks associated with liposuction procedures.
These include serious infections, fluid retention that may need to be drained with a needle, uneven texture under the skin and life-threatening fat embolism – where chunks of fat can become loose and stuck in a blood vessel and then build up. in the lungs or travel to the brain.
In the most recent case, documented in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, the woman was treated urgently to prevent the problem from causing fatal complications.
While she was under general anesthesia, a plastic tube was inserted into her lung to drain the excess air.
The patient said her symptoms immediately improved and doctors noticed her vital signs, such as blood pressure and heart rate, returned to a normal range.
She started walking again and did rregular breathing exercises and coughing exercises to help expand the chest.
Three days later, the air leak stopped and the chest tube was removed. The patient had a relatively smooth recovery without any other complications.
The doctors said they recommended including a collapsed lung as a possible complication when obtaining informed consent from patients before liposuction.
According to Medical Tourism Mexico, approximately 1.2 million Americans travel to Mexico annually for affordable care.
There are no official estimates on how many people visit the Dominican Republic each year for cosmetic surgery, but it is the most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean, receiving approximately 2.5 million visitors from the US alone each year.
Americans were warned earlier this year not to travel to the Dominican Republic for low-price plastic surgery, amid a rise in fatalities in the country due to botched operations.
Researchers in New York found that nearly 100 Americans have died in the country over the past decade as a result of procedures such as liposuction – often within three days of surgery.