Every year, Vietnam has about 25,000 - 35,000 cases of cosmetic complications.
Cosmetic surgery is a specific field for healthy people to optimize appearance. According to statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, Vietnam has about 250,000 cosmetic surgeries each year, with complications from 25,000-35,000 cases. Complications appear a lot in invasive procedures and at "underground" and unlicensed establishments.
Common complications include infection, hematoma, bad scars, functional deformities, blood clots, necrosis, blindness due to fillers, pulmonary embolism, organ damage, and even death. Among them, complications in the nasal area account for the highest proportion with 42.6%, followed by the facial area (20%) and the chest (18%).
For example, a 36-year-old woman suffered from total peritonitis after liposuction and abdominal plastic surgery. When transferred to Military Hospital 175, the patient was in a state of septic shock, having undergone many necrotic excision surgeries, skin grafts and treatment lasting more than 100 days to overcome the critical condition but leaving severe sequelae.
Another case is a 64-year-old female patient, residing in Ho Chi Minh City, who died after undergoing multiple procedures at the same time such as eyelid surgery, breast implants, liposuction and abdominal reconstruction. Two days after surgery, the patient suddenly had shortness of breath, low blood pressure, and was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism, multiple organ failure and did not survive despite intensive resuscitation.
Many other complications have also been recorded such as blindness after filler injections at spas, eyelid crease, droopy eyelids, exposed nasal cartilage, abdominal necrosis or chest necrosis after breast augmentation filler injections. The causes stem from many factors such as unlicensed facilities, the performer is not a specialist doctor, abusing coordination of too many techniques in one surgery, lack of emergency resuscitation standards. In addition, patients with underlying diseases, obesity or smoking also increase the risk of complications.
Despite being fined, the violating establishment still operates because the fine is not enough to deter.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Van - Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery - said that there should be stronger sanctions to thoroughly handle violations in the field of aesthetics, instead of just stopping at administrative sanctions.
According to him, many unlicensed beauty salons, despite being fined, continue to operate because the fines are not deterrent enough. "If you only pay fines and then continue to do it, the problem cannot be solved. Only by permanently revoking the license or suspending operations is it enough to prevent it," Mr. Van said.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Van said that the aesthetic field currently has many complex violations, from unlicensed establishments to doctors performing beyond the scope of their licensed expertise. One of the major "loopholes" today is that practicing certificates are written too generally, leading to the situation that many people perform techniques exceeding their professional capacity.
He is also concerned about the reality that some doctors rent operating rooms at hospitals to perform cosmetic surgeries even though they do not have sufficient professional qualifications or have not been licensed for anesthesia. According to him, this is the reason leading to many serious cosmetic complications in the past time.
From there, the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery proposed that it is necessary to clearly assign responsibility to the head of a medical facility when allowing contract doctors or doctors to rent operating rooms to perform surgery.
If signing for a doctor who does not have sufficient professional qualifications to perform surgery, the signatory must also be responsible," Mr. Van emphasized.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Van proposed to review the system of practicing certificates and strengthen professional training to ensure safety for patients.
