Following the death of a former Miss Argentina after complications arising from plastic surgery, questions are being raised about the risks of cosmetic surgery.
Solange Magnano, 37, died in hospital, after being transferred from a clinic where she underwent an elective surgery on her buttocks last Wednesday.
Nigel Mercer, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, last month described the cosmetic surgery industry an “unregulated mess” in the journal Clinical Risk.
Following revelations of Magnano’s death, he told CNN, “Unfortunately, the things we’re saying about this type of surgery keep being proven right by people having major disasters.”
Magnano is reported to have died from a pulmonary embolism, a blockage of the blood supply to lungs.
It is currently not known if Magnano’s death was a result of her surgery and there is no suggestion that it came about through surgical error, but there are risks associated with buttock-enhancement surgery.
Mercer said Magnano may have had a solid implant in her buttocks, a relatively low-risk procedure, but he said it’s possible that she had liquid silicone injected into her buttocks — a “highly unpleasant” procedure that is banned in most countries. An alternative would have been to extract fat from another part of her body using liposuction, and then inject the fat into the buttocks.
“With a pulmonary embolism something blocks blood supply to the lungs and circulation literally stops dead,” Mercer told CNN.
“The lump in the lungs can be stuff you’ve injected into the patient — their own fat or a lump of silicone — or it can be clots from leg veins as a result of deep vein thrombosis (DVT).”
While DVT is not common with cosmetic surgery, Mercer said that operations on the pelvis, buttocks and legs carry a much higher risk of causing the condition.
“No cosmetic surgery is totally risk free,” Mercer told CNN. “Even having botox and fillers is not risk free. There’s a chance of infection, bruising or bleeding with any procedure.”
Cosmetic surgery risks
Infection
Really serious infection is uncommon, said Mercer. He added that about one percent of all operations, whether cosmetic, orthopedic or cardiac, result in an infection, but they can be dangerous and could ruin the results of a cosmetic procedure.
