The Potential Impact of Plastic Surgery Expertise on Body Contouring Procedure Outcomes

Area of Science:

• Plastic Surgery
• General Surgery
• Surgical Outcomes Research

Background:

• Increasing demand for body contouring procedures in the US.
• Diverse surgeon specialties are performing these procedures.
• Limited data on comparative outcomes based on surgeon training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare outcomes of body contouring procedures.
• To analyze differences based on surgeon specialty training (plastic surgery vs. general surgery).

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (2005-2015).
• Stratified patients by surgeon training: plastic surgery (PS) versus general surgery (GS).
• Employed descriptive statistics and multivariate regression analyses to assess outcomes.

Main Results:

• Included 11,658 body contouring cases (9502 PS, 2156 GS).
• GS patients had higher rates of obesity, smoking, and severe comorbidities (ASA class ≥3).
• GS cases showed increased wound/infectious complications (aOR 1.81), reoperations (aOR 1.85), and longer predicted hospital stays.

Conclusions:

• Outcomes for body contouring differ significantly between plastic surgery and general surgery practitioners.
• Potential differences in procedural algorithms may explain the observed variations in complications and reoperations.