DON'T MISS A THING

In 2024, approximately 1.6 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in the United States, demonstrating a 1% rise over 2023. Among the most common procedures is liposuction, with  349,728 procedures documented. Next to that are breast augmentation (306,196) and tummy tucks (171,064). The large volume of procedures is one reason even a small error rate can impact thousands of patients.

People undergo plastic surgery to improve one or more parts of their bodies at a time. These operations are particularly significant for the patients, who often plan them over months. Chances of complications depend on the variety of surgical operations mandated to be done, which means that the destruction of body function and appearance could occur.

Let’s discuss the various types of cosmetic surgery errors and their corresponding causes.

Unsatisfactory Results vs. Malpractice: The Legal Line

Medical treatment results that fail to meet patient expectations do not automatically qualify as medical malpractice. Cosmetic surgery results depend on both the surgical assessment by the surgeon and the patient assessment. Individual healing processes, one’s body structure, and external elements all affect case outcomes. 

The legal standard is not based on what the patient says. It will only be considered medical malpractice if the surgeon departed from the accepted standard of care and caused harm.

The most common claim triggers involve facial cosmetic procedures, according to research published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal. This includes surgical errors, lack of informed consent, poor cosmetic results, and inadequate follow-up care.

A patient can file two separate claims against a surgeon when the surgeon failed to deliver a promised outcome and used promotional materials that provided false information about surgical results. Patients who were drawn to a procedure by unrealistic promotional imagery or verbal promises that contradicted the probable medical outcome have grounds to raise legal action.

Failure to Obtain Informed Consent

The study of 41 research papers about cosmetic surgery lawsuits revealed that insufficient informed consent practices constituted the primary accusation used in more than half of the legal cases. The issue concerning consent continues to rank as the most common reason for lawsuits against cosmetic surgeons.

For an accurate process of informed consent, a fuller explanation is to be provided than merely putting a signature on a form. Such information covers the operation, all potential risks, any complications associated with the procedure, the anticipated results, and all possible treatment options, including no treatment. “Informed consent” means that the procedure is explained to the patient in a language that they understand and that they are given enough time to review the information before consenting.

Informed consent procedures for cosmetic procedures require more strict implementation. Patients who select rhinoplasty or breast augmentation must receive complete information about all potential risks, which they must evaluate before making their decision. Common failures in this process include:

• The explanation provides only positive results while it downplays or removes hazards that might happen during the procedure.
• The explanation of the surgeon’s credentials and professional experience, who will conduct the procedure, lacks proper detail.
• The discussion about the need for corrective procedures, which might require revision surgery, does not take place.
• The consent document uses language that exceeds the understanding abilities of a person without medical expertise.
• The consent process gets accelerated because consent forms get signed during the same medical appointment as the surgical procedure.

Medical professionals will face legal consequences if they provide misleading information about a surgical outcome and cause the patient adverse effects.

Inadequate Pre-Operative Assessment

Mistakes made before the actual operation can be just as consequential. This is the reason why a surgeon must conduct a thorough pre-operative evaluation of the patient. They must learn about every risk factor, like medication interactions, allergies, underlying medical conditions, and any restrictions related to the surgical procedure.

The assessment process requires full completion. Any assessment time reduction generates situations that lead to preventable patient injuries. All surgical operations present increased dangers to patients who have undiscovered clotting disorders. An unexamined medication record results in a patient receiving anesthesia, which produces hazardous interactions with their normal medications. 

A patient whose prior surgical history was not obtained may have tissue characteristics that affect healing and require a modified technique. Performing surgery on an incompletely prepared patient is seen as a preoperative failure. 

Other examples include failure to conduct fasting before a general anesthesia, continuing with anticoagulant medications that should have been discontinued, or having an active infection that should have delayed a certain procedure. It is the surgeon’s responsibility to ensure that these requirements are met, not just to delegate them to the patient to report.

Surgical Errors During the Procedure

The technical mistakes that occur during the cosmetic procedure process create two types of problems, which include visible mistakes and hidden mistakes that need to be examined until the patient completes their recovery. 

According to surgical error lawyer Daniel Clayton, knowing what can cause a surgical error is the first step in securing compensation that accurately reflects the cost of recovery in a unique case.

Nerve Damage

Cosmetic surgery on facial, neck, and body areas needs to take place near critical sensory and motor nerve networks. Often, unnecessary dissection and improper techniques could result in permanent loss of body and motor functions. 

Nerve damage from facelifts, rhinoplasty, and other body contouring activities qualifies as a liable claim, and filing a malpractice suit in these cases also falls under this jurisdiction. The departure from standard surgical methods, which leads to nerve damage, creates a basis for negligence claims against the surgeon who failed to follow proper techniques.

Anesthesia Errors

The anesthesiologist or certified registered nurse anesthetist maintains independent patient care responsibilities that operate alongside the surgeon’s obligations. 

All instances of malpractice stem from errors. This is why they must be careful when calculating dosage and checking vital signs during surgery. They must not gloss over medical conditions that restrict treatment and handle post-surgical complications well. 

Anesthesia mistakes lead to three possible outcomes. It may lead to brain damage, cardiac complications, or death. The responsibility for these errors depends on how the mistake occurred among the anesthesia provider, the surgeon, and the facility.

Wrong-site or Wrong-procedure Surgery

Operating on the incorrect body part and performing a surgical procedure without patient consent or beyond the consented body area stand as two examples of surgical mistakes that medical professionals can eliminate. 

Preoperative verification protocols serve to eliminate these particular errors. The occurrence of these errors demonstrates that established protocols failed to prevent the incident or that organizations lacked any effective protocols to handle situations that required protocol implementation.

Implant-related Errors

The correct selection and placement, along with the accurate positioning of breast augmentation devices, gluteal implants, and other implant-based surgical implants, needs proper execution. 

Errors in implant size, positioning, or insertion technique lead to asymmetry and capsular contracture. Migration, rupture, and the requirement for revision surgery are other outcomes of implant-related errors. The practice of using implants in configurations that the FDA did not approve and that medical professionals selected without proper criteria raises the danger of security violations.

Post-Operative Negligence

The responsibilities of a surgeon to their patients continue even after the completion of a surgical operation. The responsibilities of post-operative care require medical staff to deliver detailed instructions about wound management and to create suitable follow-up appointments while they observe patients for any developing medical issues and react swiftly to patient-reported difficulties. 

Postoperative negligence represents a separate and widespread form of malpractice that occurs in cosmetic surgery practice. Surgical procedures carry the risk of developing infections, blood clots, seromas, and wound dehiscence. The assessment of malpractice through the arising complications depends on the evaluation of whether the surgeon maintained postoperative patient care standards. 

The standard of care is violated through three specific actions. This includes failing to identify developing infection symptoms, dismissing patient reports of unusual pain, and restricting patients from receiving urgent follow-up treatment. The research on aesthetic body surgery litigation found that infection was the most frequent complication across cases, appearing in nearly half of the reviewed claims. 

Infections do not occur as an unavoidable outcome, but rather, they emerge from poor sterile procedures, incorrect wound management, and the lack of proper treatment for early infection symptoms.

Facility and Accreditation Issues

The location of cosmetic surgery procedures holds significant importance. The accredited surgical facilities must keep their equipment operational for handling emergency medical situations, which include emergency airway management and resuscitation equipment.

Unaccredited medical procedures, which occur in unregulated medical spas and office-based facilities that lack critical backup systems, create dangerous medical situations. The medical qualifications of a surgeon hold equal importance to their professional experience. 

Plastic surgery board certification and recognized cosmetic surgery specialty certification show a practitioner has completed specific training and passed an evaluation. The lack of suitable credentials together with insufficient regulations that govern non-physician cosmetic practitioners in that jurisdiction results in increased frequency and severity of mistakes.

Both the facility and the individual may face legal responsibility when a practitioner who lacks proper qualifications performs a procedure that causes damage.

When a Cosmetic Surgery Error May Support a Malpractice Claim

There are four basic elements needed for a successful cosmetic surgery malpractice case: a duty of care owed by the provider to the patient, a breach of that duty through a departure from the standard of care, an established link between the patient’s injury and the departure from the standard of care, and evidence of resulting damages. 

In cosmetic surgery cases, the causation element sometimes requires careful analysis. A known complication risk, resulting from proper execution of a procedure, serves as evidence that no breach occurred and that the procedure followed proper standards.

If you faced a complication after cosmetic surgery, keep all documentation: pre-operative records, consent forms, post-operative instructions, follow-up contact records, and images of the area taken over time. They are important for the legal process to establish what happened and whether any part might breach the standard of care for the situation.

The Standard of Care Applies to Elective Surgery, Too

Surgeons and facilities must maintain the same level of care for their patients that they would provide to their patients, as cosmetic surgery remains an elective procedure. The required standards for these surgical procedures match the same level of difficulty that exists in every other surgical specialty. They occur with predictable frequency, while patients expect their performance to meet established safety standards and professional quality. 

Patients who suffer serious harm from cosmetic surgery errors have the same rights as individuals harmed in any medical context. A medical malpractice attorney should be consulted first to evaluate medical records and determine whether a legal claim exists based on the standard of care that should have been provided.

More to Love!

Why Women Have Embraced Cosmetic Procedures So Much
What Women Should Look for in a Truly Qualified Cosmetic Surgeon