Renaissance Plastic Surgery

I always pick up Spirit magazine when I fly Southwest Airlines.  It has great articles, great games, and even entertaining ads.  When we started working with Renaissance, I pulled out the ad for plastic surgeons, intending to ask what they thought of the Best Plastic Surgeons section.

Turns out, in many, many lists, the Best Plastic Surgeons are those willing to pay for the privilege of being listed in the magazine.  It's like the Who's Who scam, where you pay for directory and then get listed.  It doesn't mean anything.  Now, I have no personal knowledge of how Spirit magazine picks their surgeons, but Rob Oliver points us to one such company that allows you to pay for placement.

I was pleased (snark!) to find out via the mail today that I am now officially one of "America's Top Surgeons" as recognized by the "Consumers' Research Council of America" (CRCA). Ever heard of it? Me neither.

What do you have to do to be recognized? Have a medical license and a credit card to buy their over-priced cheezy swag plaques and knick-knacks to impress patients with as far as I can tell.

The sad part of the story, as Rob points out, is that a patient is just as likely to find his practice through a meaningless promotional directory as they are through his skills and licenses.  That's why plastic surgeons market their services.  We oftentimes aren't competing with each other, but rather with the myriad "solutions" promoted and marketed by those who aren't surgeons.

If you are interested in plastic surgery visit www.rpsplasticsurgery.com for more information. Some of our most popular procedures include breast augmentation, breast reduction, breast lift, liposuction, tummy tuck, rhinoplasty and face lift surgery.

Surgery of all kinds bears some risk, and the importance of understanding those risks was on display when the press reported the sad case of Stephanie Kuleba, a young woman who died this spring while undergoing a cosmetic procedure (it was not breast augmentation).

The autopsy has been completed, and the cause of death was listed as malignant hyperthermia, a rare but fatal reaction to inhaled anesthetics.

The Plastic Surgery 101 has a fuller description, including a description of the lawsuit, and how the case was handled by the doctors.  The procedure was performed at the doctor's offices, and not in a hospital, and that does raise questions about what could have been done, but the truth remains that this young girl's demise was principally the result of a rare genetic disease.  From Dr. Oliver:

I hope that this event will continue to foster more discussion on oversight for office-based surgery and anesthesia. It's ironic that it's actually been Plastic Surgery that been the most progressive in regulatory oversite in ambulatory surgery. While this case was an anesthesia complication rather then a surgical one, the who's, where's , and how's of who can (or should) be doing surgery is overdue for more scrutiny.

For more on malignant hyperthermia, go here.

If you are interested in plastic surgery visit www.rpsplasticsurgery.com for more information. Some of our most popular procedures include breast augmentation, breast reduction, breast lift, liposuction, tummy tuck, rhinoplasty and face lift surgery.