Litigation after nasal plastic surgery

Esthetic surgeries are among the commonest medical procedures in the world nowadays; and as statistics declare, there has been a rapid increase in the rate of rhinoplasty during the recent years. Hence, as the number of cosmetic surgeries rises, the increment in the number of physicians being sued is quite inevitable; either due to complication in rhinoplasties or even inability to fulfill the patients' expectations. This article aims to clarify the aspects of causes leading to these legal claims.

We designed a retrospective study according to the available files in the Iranian Organization for Forensic Medicine in which physicians were sued for the outcomes of rhinoplasty through the years 2004 to 2010. In addition, information on the patients' demographic data, surgeons' specialty and experience, and method of anesthesia were also collected.

One hundred twenty six patients entered the study among which 77 (61%) were female and 49 (39%) male. Mean age was obtained as 26.9 ± 7.7yrs. Up to 79.4% of patients had complaints concerning the cosmetic outcomes, 39.7% with respiratory and 4.8% with olfactory problems. The reason to sue the physician had a significant relationship with the patients' age and sex, and also with the surgeons' experience.

There are multiple reasons impelling the patients to sue surgeons after rhinoplasty, some are related to physicians' malpractice and some to the patients' social and personal circumstances.