Plastic Surgery: Decisions, Decisions

November 18, 2007

The news is perfect timing for me. As I’m considering going under the knife to correct some minor issues that came up after I gave birth to two children, the news headlines are plastered with the dangers of plastic surgery, following the tragic death of Donda West, mother of hip-hop star Kanye West. While the circumstances surrounding her death are still surfacing, one thing’s for sure: The nation is taking a closer look at these ‘elective’ surgeries and weighing the risks versus rewards. My heart goes out for the West family. Now that the nation’s talking about plastic surgery—I’m looking in the mirror and wondering if my own desires to get some work done should be re-examined.

A 2004 study published in the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, found that deaths occurring at office-based surgery facilities are rare—less than ¼ percent. More than 400,000 operative procedures in accredited office-based outpatient surgery centers were studied from 2000-2002. Serious complications were infrequent, occurring 1 in 298 cases or 0.34 percent with death occurring 1 in 51,459 cases or 0.0019 percent, which is comparable to the overall risk of such procedures performed in hospital surgery facilities. And a new study presented at the ASPS annual scientific conference in October reported similar findings