Research says malpractice risk high with plastic surgery
July 1, 1999 2 minutes read
Research says malpractice risk high with plastic surgery
Research to be published later this year suggests the malpractice risk is surprisingly high with plastic surgery and has little to do with the outcome of the surgery. Personality disorders, rather than the actual results of surgery, are more responsible for patients filing lawsuits, says Henri Gaboriau, MD, a plastic surgeon in the department of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery, and facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Tulane University in New Orleans. Here are some highlights of his research:
• Of 133 plastic surgery patients, 50% presented with clinical depression, 70% with anxiety, and 20% with substance abuse; 29% had attempted suicide.
• Twenty-nine percent of the patients were found to have no personality disorder; 25% were narcissistic, 12% dependent, 10% histrionic, 9% borderline, and 4% obsessive-compulsive.
• Postoperative satisfaction was higher in the dependent and histrionic groups, scoring 7.1 and 5.7 on a scale of 10. Satisfaction was lowest in the borderline and obsessive-compulsive groups, scoring 1.5 and 2.
• Of 10 plastic surgery malpractice cases studied, eight involved patients diagnosed as either narcissistic or borderline. The profiles of these patients were almost identical, with each having two or more previous plastic surgeries. They also considered their surgeons to be "the best" but quickly said the surgeon was "the worst" when a minor complication occurred.
• The surgeons sued for malpractice also shared certain traits, the research revealed. They accepted and even reinforced patients’ personality disorders at the beginning of the relationship, and they failed to realize the depth of patients’ psychological stress when a complication arose. Ultimately, the surgeons "rejected" the patients in some way.
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