Example of a Typical Case:

Now imagine an obese African American woman that you can imagine is 75 pounds or more overweight, has had multiple childbirths, has a lot of stretch marks and loose skin. Her skin is hanging and has folds of fat. She is prone to scar formation, has surgical scars, and does not listen to preoperative instructions, regardless of how many times the staff and the surgeon explain things, she does not pay attention to the details and she does not even bother to go and do her own investigation and educate herself, read, watch youtube videos, have a consultation with other surgeons, nor does she have the level of understanding or the education to even understand all the idiosyncrasies of the surgeries she is about to have, and she does not wish to take personal responsibility for the potential complications and the outcome should they come to pass, instead decides to cast blame on others if they happen. She does not read the preoperative and postoperative instructions, and due to her limited education may not understand or choose to understand the seriousness of their accuracy so when she the first liposuction garment that she washed she hated it because it was too restrictive and dried, she wears her dance outfit that looks like the liposuction garment because “it looks just like the liposuction garment they are selling for so much more”. She only has one liposuction garment, and she hates it, so she prefers her dance outfit, so she prefers it because it is “more comfortable”. Then she ends up being upset because she expected to have beautiful curves and round, beautiful buttocks like her much younger sister, and she is extremely upset with her surgeon that she does not have ideal results.

 Her skin does not heal perfectly, the scars under the skin cause her skin to retract, and the fat cells implant in clusters, causing lumps and bumps, and as she gains weight again, they create irregular contours. She ends up with irregular dimpling and all the things described above in the previous sections. Of course, the legal limit of fat removed is not nearly enough in her opinion for what she expected her surgeon to remove. She wanted her surgeon to remove enough fat “so that she could at least see a difference”. She feels cheated and upset. She paid all that money, not only she did not get thin, and beautiful like her sister, but she now looked worse. She goes around and writes on all social media, complains everywhere, tells her upset to everyone, comes back demanding her money back, and on top of that demanding a repeat surgery for free, and still after a free touch-up surgery, after which she gets some improvement, she goes around and continues to bad-mouth the surgeon and accuse him of all types of things and damages his/her good name and reputation.

Now what should the surgeon do? What could he/she have done? Prior to surgery, the patient claimed she understood all the risks, benefits, and alternatives and signed all the consents. She took all the preoperative and postoperative instructions home with her. She was given instructions about where to purchase the two liposuction garments: one for the day of surgery, and one for backup. After an excellent and eventless, perfect procedure, here we are!!! Many similar situations as described in the example above occur in the practice of cosmetic surgery, frequently. The point is, no matter what the variation, the surgeon could do his job perfectly well, and still, he can’t prevent all the problems, right? 

Conclusion:

Complication in cosmetic surgery is inevitable. Doing surgery will result in complications. The only way to not have complications is to not do surgery.

By definition, in the best of circumstances, in any surgery, there are a certain percent risk of infection, scarring, nerve injury, bleeding, etc. 

That means if a surgeon does thousands of surgeries, these complications are bound to show up, and that is under the best of circumstances! Now what if the circumstances are less than ideal? 

Among many of the preventative methods, perhaps theoretically a couple of achievable methods of prevention of some complications are: 

Surgeon's careful patient-selection; procedure choice selection; educating the patients well about the preoperative and post-operative risks, and care plan; expectation management & under promising, among other surgical practice decision making routines.... And for 

Patients to help prevent some of the complications include surgeon selection based on rapport, connection, professionalism and qualifications, self-education about the risks of the procedures, their causes of various complications, ways of preventing these complications and the chances of their occurrence in addition to preoperative as well as postoperative self-education. Research your plastic surgeon. Make sure your plastic surgeon has the proper licensure, training, experience, and board certification. You should also make sure that the facility where your surgery will take place is properly accredited, equipped and staffed.

You should ask your plastic surgeon about their experience with the specific procedure you would like to have specifically. Although a plastic surgeon may have over thirty years of plastic surgery experience, it does not necessarily mean that he has enough experience in the specific procedure you are interested in. Make sure that the procedure you are asking for is appropriate for your body type, genetics, and lifestyle. You can also ask your surgeon about his previous rate of complications with the procedure you are interested in having and how it compares to the national average, and if your situation puts you at any higher risk of complications. Be prepared to take notes and ask if you can record the visit.

Never hide any information from your surgeon and make sure you always answer all your surgeon's questions honestly. When during your initial consultation process for cosmetic surgery, your surgeon and the staff ask you about your medical history, answer honestly about all your past medical conditions, current medical conditions and issues, past surgeries, health issues, symptoms, concerns, medications, or supplements that you take so your surgeon will have the most information about any possible complications. Your social life is also extremely important, and your lifestyle. Be honest even if you feel embarrassed to share, it is a must and after all you are about to risk your life, plus if you feel that you can't confide in the surgeon you are about to have surgery with, ask yourself if he/she is the right surgeon for you? This one factor can save your life! Trust your gut feeling!