Plastic Surgery Malpractice: Expert Witness Is Truthful?

[bbc586]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I'm curious about a plastic surgeon's opinion on this med mal case and the expert witness opinion:

A 51 year old woman underwent breast reduction, abdominoplasty and upper abdominal liposuction.

She developed an infection, wound dehiscence, and a poor cosmetic outcome of her breasts.

Plaintiffs hired an expert witness (board certified plastic surgeon) who wrote an opinion criticizing the defendant.

Does it seem like a reasonable criticism that upper abdominal liposuction should not be done at the same time?

www.expertwitness.substack.com --> Case #5

Also interesting because the plastic surgeon took it all the way to trial, only about 10-15% actually go all the way to trial.

 

[310prolene]

Difficult to know the validity of the complaint without reading the op report. But delayed wound healing and flap loss after liposuction is the central undermined abdominoplasty flap has been widely reported. The following article has been used to write multiple inservice questions so most plastic surgeons should be aware of this.

https://journals.lww.com/plasreconsurg/Fulltext/2000/10000/Liposuction_as_an_Adjunct_to_a_Full_Abdominoplasty.35.aspx

 

[plastic]

I agree that this article is widely used, but it is outdated at this point. Flap liposuction, and even upper abdominal liposuction, is a routine part of many abdominoplasties at this point. Of course, every patient is unique and multiple variables have to be taken into account. In addition, if upper abdominal liposuction is planned/performed, the extent of undermining must be considered.

 

[Laradd]

Woah. This article! I just knew some of the information

 

[droliver]

I would say the plaintiff's witness was inaccurately characterizing the current standard of care as to exclude liposuction during an abdominoplasty. It's done all the time. There are some technique considerations with upper central abdomen and they're may be features of this particular patient that made them a higher risk candidate, but a blanket statement about it would be wrong.