A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns Americans against seeking cosmetic surgery procedures abroad after finding an increase in recent deaths associated with complications of the viral Brazilian butt lift procedure completed in the Dominican Republic.
Although infections from cosmetic surgery are a regular risk of procedures that take place abroad, deaths are seldom reported, the report says. Yet cosmetic surgery-related fatalities in the Dominican Republic jumped precipitously around 2018 and peaked in 2020, at the height of the BBL craze. Of the 24 deaths in 2019 and 2020 that the study’s authors could find autopsies on, liposuction occurred in all of them and gluteal fat transfer occurred in all but 2 of them. The Brazilian butt lift, or BBL, involves moving fat from the waist, thighs, or other ‘undesirable’ areas to the rear instead.
A vast majority of those who died after cosmetic procedures in the island nation were women; only one of the 93 people whose deaths were recorded by the embassy was not female.
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The report also found that many of the cases reviewed had underlying factors, like having multiple operations performed at the same time, that put them at higher risk.
The Dominican Republic is a popular destination for medical tourism because of the cheap cost of cosmetic procedures and its proximity to the United States. In 2020, the cost of the BBL was just over $3300, down from $5500 two years before.
The procedures are still generally safe in the U.S., provided that they’re done by a qualified surgeon. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported last year that professionals continued to take steps to make the booty-lifting procedure safer and more predictable, even as the craze around them has cooled.
