Psychological considerations in lipoplasty: the problematic or "special care" patient

Plastic surgeons are not able to handpick every patient. They can only, in reality, screen, evaluate, and accept or reject those patients who appear in their practice. Thus, the patient population is already delimited by several demographical and socioeconomic factors. Lipoplasty specialists see a further smaller group within this defined subset of all surgical patients. The group seeking lipoplasty may contain a disproportionately large number of patients with self-concept disorders, whose obsessional emphasis on the physical component of self can present preoperative and postoperative problems to surgeons. This article is designed to help surgeons evaluate their patient population before surgery and to uncover problem or rather "special care" patients.