"Extreme" cosmetic surgery: a retrospective study of morbidity in patients undergoing combined procedures

It is increasingly common for patients to request that multiple cosmetic procedures be performed during a single operation. The advantages of combined procedures include a single recovery period, reduced surgery costs, and faster patient gratification. Traditional surgical thinking, however, has favored the performance of some procedures individually in an effort to decrease complications associated with prolonged anesthesia.

The goal of this study was to determine whether performance of combined cosmetic surgery procedures results in increased morbidity.

Two hundred forty-eight abdominoplasties performed by the same surgeon over a 10-year period were reviewed retrospectively. Four groups of procedures were compared: abdominoplasty alone, abdominoplasty combined with breast surgery, abdominoplasty combined with facial surgery, and abdominoplasty combined with both breast and facial surgery.

No statistically significant differences in complication rates were found among the four groups. The prevalence of morbidity in all groups compared favorably to the parameters established in previous reviews.

The results of this retrospective review do not indicate that the combination of cosmetic surgical procedures increases morbidity. The potential benefits of combined procedures may be considered with the expectation of comparably low complication rates.