Emerging Legal Risks in Medical Spa Procedures: Insights From 20 Malpractice Cases

Medical malpractice contributes to an estimated $55.6 billion in overall medical liability system costs per year. The rise of medspas has resulted in an increase in complications and litigation. In this study, we identified all publicly indexed litigation against medical spas and medical spa practitioners using the Westlaw legal database and characterized trends in these findings.

A retrospective analysis of litigation against medical spas and medical providers performing care at medical spas was performed. Cases were indexed from 2006 to 2024 using the Westlaw legal database. Case documents were reviewed for the following datapoints: Patient characteristics (age, sex), legal case characteristics (state in which litigation occurred, reason for litigation, outcome, monetary payments, expert witness involvement), and medical procedure characteristics (type of procedure, location on the body in which the procedure was performed, complication, credentials of person who performed the procedure).

Twenty legal cases met inclusion criteria, ranging in date from May 2006 to October 2024. The average patient age was 36 years old (SD 12.570). All plaintiffs were listed as female (n=20). 4 cases sued only the medspas, 15 sued only a medical practitioner, and in one case both the practitioner and medspa were sued. Each of the 20 cases were decided by jury decision at trial. 7 cases were won by the defendants (35%), whereas the remaining 13 cases were won by the plaintiffs. The average jury award was $2,489,128.69.

Our findings highlight the importance of properly managing patient expectations and thorough discourse regarding the risks of the procedure to better align patient presurgery expectations with the final result. Our findings also emphasize the positive impact that tighter regulation of medical spas will have on patient safety. Our data is limited by the small sample size that was indexed on Westlaw legal database and descriptive in nature, so future studies analyzing larger cohorts of data may provide additional data to further benefit patient safety.