Martina (obviously, her name is fictitious), 45, from Naples, recently underwent breast augmentation surgery by a doctor who assured her of his professionalism and experience. However, the results of the procedure were far from positive: the woman developed fluid and blood, as well as extreme swelling and pain in one breast. This was confirmed by the experts currently treating her. Francesco D'Andrea, president of the Italian Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, is raising the alarm about the increasing cases of fake specialists causing serious harm to patients. "Thanks to treatment with an exclusive technology that we were the first to use in Italy (deep care, which uses thermal and subthermal energy), we avoided having to subject the patient to corrective surgery. But the cases of harm caused by those who claim to be specialists in the field, but lack the necessary expertise, are alarmingly increasing." "Frequently, women have undergone, for example, lip augmentation with fillers," explains D'Andrea, "with a distorted result linked to the use of a banned product like liquid silicone, still offered by unscrupulous doctors who are only interested in marketing, forgetting that we don't sell products but actually perform medical services." The ever-increasing demand for cosmetic medicine and surgery treatments, with a growth trend of over 10% in the last five years, has seen an increase in complications and failures, "a number exacerbated by the growth in improvised procedures performed by non-specialists," remarks the SICPRE president. Consequently, the number of requests for secondary procedures to repair damage caused by inexperienced hands is on the rise. "About 30% of our procedures fall into this category, which is not always easy to resolve. The types of these complications vary and can be related to minimally invasive cosmetic medicine treatments or fall within the scope of plastic surgery." According to D'Andrea, damage from treatments "considered simple, such as fillers, Botox, laser technology, or cosmetic surgery," is increasingly common. "To address this problem, as SICPRE specialists, we are committed to providing accurate information to the public and training to doctors with refresher courses and university master's degrees, such as the one I direct in aesthetic medicine at the Federico II University in Naples."
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