Medical liability issues in cosmetic and plastic surgery

The liability issues may involve some turf battles between the specialties because of the possibility of one specialty trying to institute lawsuits through patients against the other specialty in order to drive the competition out of business. Each cosmetic surgical procedure has liability issues particular to the surgery but there are many common issues that involve a number of different procedures. These include: Failure to maintain adequate patient rapport. Failure to give proper informed consent. Failure to obtain information on significant past medical history. Performing procedure not requested. Breaching the standard of care in the performance of the surgery or procedure. Failure to diagnose and treat a complication in a timely fashion. Expert witness misrepresentations. This paper analyzes the various aspects of liability in the plastic/cosmetic surgery field and attempts to aid the physician in preventing or resolving some of these problems.