Munchausen syndrome: hospital hobo of the 1990s

Munchausen Syndrome is an unusual subset of symptoms experienced by patients who self-inflict artificial illness. Caring for Munchausen patients, who are frequently finding their way into plastic surgery practices, is very time consuming because they often fail to respond to standard modalities of treatment. They abuse the medical system by seeking care from one or more caregivers at the same time and appear to relish repeating expensive diagnostic procedures. Four case studies are presented in this article along with suggestions for treating these patients.