2007-08-13 Ucompare
www.Ucompare-Cosmeticsurgery.co.uk
In our first instalment, we are choosing to have a look at the various factors that have resulted in a huge growth in the cosmetic surgery industry in the Czech Republic, and discuss why Prague in particular has become a centre for cosmetic surgery excellence in Europe.

There are predominantly three main factors which has converged to result in the growth in cosmetic surgery in Prague. Firstly, lower prices for comparable cosmetic surgery in Prague, sometimes in the region of 60% have meant that the overall cost saving made by having your cosmetic surgery in the Czech Republic can often be as much as £2,500 – £3,000. Significant savings such as these have resulted cosmetic surgery in Prague becoming increasingly accessible to more moderate income earners in the UK.

Secondly, the high standards of cosmetic surgery on offer within the Czech Republic have become more apparent to individuals researching the opportunities for having their cosmetic surgery abroad. With cosmetic surgeons in the Czech Republic being tightly regulated and licensed through accreditation boards such as the Czech Society for Aesthetic Surgery, high standards have been maintained throughout the country.

Finally, the past ten years have seen an increasing number of low fare airlines offering cheap flights to the Czech Republic, and with the flight time to Prague being comparable to the journey to London, an increasing number of individuals have chosen to have their cosmetic surgery procedure undertaken in Prague.

After examining more than 2,700 men and women with an average age of 45, scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas found that those with even a little fat around their waists were significantly more vulnerable to heart disease, even if their overall weight was normal.

Their findings, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), may come as a shock to many who would not consider themselves fat. But they reinforce a growing belief among medical experts that waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is a more accurate measure of healthy shape than the widely used body mass index (BMI).

BMI, which is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared, gives an overall indication of heaviness compared with height. But according to BMI measurements, well-toned specimens from Brad Pitt to the rugby star Jonah Lomu would be classed as overweight, and increasing numbers of experts are now questioning BMI’s usefulness.

The new study by James de Lemos and his team adds credibility to the theory that WHR is a more accurate means of measuring heart-disease risk because it identifies potentially dangerous “central obesity� even in those who are not overweight.

(HealthNewsDigest.com) 
Cardinal Health, a global provider of products and services that improve the safety and productivity of health care, today announced Presource® Standard Cosmetic-Surgery Packs – prepackaged kits that provide the core surgical components needed for common cosmetic surgery procedures.

The new procedure packs are available for liposuction, abdominoplasty, rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty, facial rhytidectomy, breast augmentation, breast reduction and breast lift. Consumer demand for these procedures is growing at a rate of 12 percent annually, with Americans spending approximately $12.4 billion on cosmetic procedures in 2006.

“As the demand for cosmetic surgery procedures continues to grow, health-care providers must be focused on improving the quality and safety of patient care, while also improving the efficiency with which that care is delivered,� said Steve Inacker, president and general manager of Cardinal Health’s Presource® Products and Services business

BBC NEWS Scotland 17/07/08

A woman who weighs 24 stone intends to take Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board to court if it does not consider her for weight-loss surgery.
Laura Brown, 34, insists her weight is leaving her in pain and house-bound.  She became angry after the health authority told her she would have to attend a year-long diet programme before she could undergo surgery.

Ms Brown, from Glasgow, believes her only option to lose weight is to have a gastric band fitted around her stomach.

Seven years ago she lost 12 stone with the help of weight loss drugs prescribed by her doctor. Since then she has put all the weight back on.

The health board have told Ms Brown that she will have to attend their weight management programme for at least a year before she can be put forward for the operation.

In England it is recommended that anyone with a BMI of over 40, like Ms Brown, should automatically be considered for surgery because of the cost efficiency. Scottish guidelines are currently under review.
 

By Angela Parker Indystar.com 15/08/07
If you’re thinking those laugh lines aren’t so funny anymore or that surgery might be the only way to shed dangerous extra pounds, here’s a tip: Having realistic expectations and determination are requirements for successful cosmetic or bariatric surgery.
 
For cosmetic surgery patients, realistic expectations are like best friends who tell the truth even when it hurts. Expecting surgery to turn a Phyllis Diller into a Julia Roberts is just not realistic — but expecting to look like a younger version of yourself is totally achievable. Dr. Catherine P. Winslow, FACS, Winslow Facial Plastic Surgery, recommends looking at photographs from 10 years ago to get an idea of what surgery can accomplish.

“Anti-aging surgery is designed to take the years off, not alter the way you look,� Winslow said. “If patients have good expectations, they are going to be pleased with the results. If they have inappropriate expectations, they are going to be unhappy no matter what you do.�

Extensive presurgery counseling with a surgeon or psychologist helps ensure patients have the proper perspective, and it can reveal unhealthy attitudes that would make them poor surgery candidates.

After surgery, patients might experience mild depression early in the healing process. Though they know to expect some swelling, seeing their faces in that condition can be disconcerting.

“A lot of hand-holding is involved in getting patients to the point where they are happy with the results,� Winslow said.

For bariatric surgery patients, determination is the critical element. It’s a mistake to think surgery alone is a cure for obesity. After the initial dramatic weight loss, patients must be determined to keep the pounds off for a lifetime.

“We can deliver a lot of skill and advice and performance. But if the recipient is not going to be a team player, then no matter how good our work is, it’s not going to work out,� said Dr. Samer G. Mattar, medical director, Clarian Bariatric Center.

Ironically, patients must start losing weight six months before surgery. Bariatric surgery risks are about the same as with gall bladder surgery, but obese patients can reduce their risk by changing their diets and shrinking their enlarged livers. This enables the surgeon to maneuver more easily behind it to work on the stomach.

Patients who are unwilling to make this effort likely won’t have the determination to make their surgery a lifelong success.

“The only patient who is not suitable is the patient who is not willing to see me in preparation for surgery,� said Ruthanne M. Hilbrich, RD, nutrition coordinator, Clarian Bariatric Center. “They have to shrink that liver, and if they are not willing to, I postpone their surgery.�

Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph 12/08/07
Almost 700,000 people are so fat that they need drastic surgery to tackle their weight problems, the Government’s health watchdog has found.

Despite the scale of the obesity crisis, primary care trusts (PCTs), fearful that the £3 billion cost of the operations would cripple the NHS, are restricting surgery to the most desperate cases. Last year, fewer than 5,000 such operations were performed.

Analysis of the guidance drawn up by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) reveals that 688,000 people in England, classified as “morbidly obese”, are entitled to be fitted with gastric bands or to have stomach stapling operations to reduce the amount of food they consume.

Nice says that anyone with a body mass index (BMI) above 40 should be offered surgery if other attempts to lose weight fail after six months, and those with a BMI above 50 should go under the knife immediately. A BMI of 40 equates to a man of 5ft 9in weighing 19 stone and a woman of 5ft 4in weighing almost 17 stone.

However, obesity experts claim that PCTs are ignoring the guidelines and, because they cannot afford to pay for thousands of operations – which cost about £6,000 each – are imposing stricter restrictions of their own.

Critics said the figures were an indictment of the Government’s failure to tackle Britain’s obesity epidemic, which has seen the number of obese people soar by 40 per cent in the past decade. One Briton in four is now classed as obese.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: “This is an illustration of the Government’s failure to tackle the problem. It shouldn’t be about waiting until someone becomes a hopeless case.”

Obesity experts said that cash-strapped PCTs were desperate to avoid the costs of operating on the obese.

David Hewin, a surgeon at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, said: “The numbers involved are huge, so PCTs are coming up with much more stringent criteria and moving the goalposts. Some are only offering surgery to patients who have other medical problems, such as type two diabetes, and some only to patients with a BMI over 50.”

Janet Edmond, director of the British Obesity Surgery Patient Association, said budgetary concerns were being exacerbated by a shortage of the specialists required to perform the procedures. “At the moment this is being funded in small numbers,” she said. “I would love to see a lot more patients getting access to surgery but realistically it cannot be done overnight. The resources are just not there.”
 

Plastic surgeons today condemned a radio phone-in offering a boob job as a prize. The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (Baaps) criticised Liverpool`s Juice FM for giving Nadine Pude, 27, the chance to increase her A-cup bosom to a double D – which she has plumped for.

Nadine, who plans to buy “loads of new underwear and a bikini that really shows off my assets”, won the Bra Wars competition after viewers voted for her on the radio`s online Juice Tube site.

But Adam Searle, former Baaps president, said: “The giving of a surgical procedure as a prize is an unbelievable, dangerous and highly unethical practice.

“The decision to perform any surgical procedure must be based on common sense, case selection, good surgical decision making and patient safety.

“The offer of a cosmetic surgery procedure as a prize is an awful manifestation of the trivialisation of medical care in general, and aesthetic surgery in particular.”
 

By Gregory Lopes – Washington Times – August 13, 2007
Companies seeking to cut rising health care costs are starting to dock the pay of overweight and unhealthy workers.

Clarian Health, an Indiana hospital chain, will require workers who smoke to pay $5 out of each paycheck starting in 2009. For workers deemed obese, as much as $30 will be taken out each paycheck until they meet certain weight, cholesterol and blood pressure standards.

Clarian employees will also be required to take part in a health risk appraisal that will inform the company which employees smoke.

Such appraisals are becoming a popular tool for businesses to determine the health of their work force. The type of health benefit program Clarian is setting up could become a model for businesses in coming years, analysts say.

By Carolyn Johnson – ABC7 San Francisco
Is This A New Weight Loss Solution?
In May we followed a patient through a relatively new stomach reduction procedure, a Gastric Sleeve, and the patient was told to expect dramatic changes within the first three months. We wanted to see if the promises held true, so we went along for his three months checkup. Gregg Jossart, M.D., California Pacific Medical Center: “He’s a tall man, so he’ll probably lose about 70 to 80 pounds in the first ninety days, and his diabetes will probably be cured two to three months from now, and his blood pressure should be dramatically improved and that should be cured as well.”                                                                                                                                                          Bold predictions from Dr. Gregg Jossart, chief of minimally invasive surgery at California Pacific Medical Center.                                           Patient Scott Coffelt weighed in at 340 pounds the day of surgery. With small incisions, similar to those used for gastric banding or the “lap band”, doctors separated Scott’s stomach from the surrounding tissue and stapled off the majority of it, leaving just a tiny pouch. The rest of his stomach, removed for good along with the part that produces the hormone ghrelin, believed responsible for stimulating appetite. Unlike a gastric bypass, the intestines were not re-routed.                                                                                                                                                                Dr. Jossart: “You’ve lost 65 pounds in about 90 days.”                                                                                                                                       And with that weight loss came great gains.                                                                                                                                                          Scott Coffelt, stomach reduction patient: “I haven’t taken any medication since the day after surgery. Nothing for diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, any of that. all the pills are gone.”

More http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=edell&id=5556228

Raleigh, NC — (SBWIRE) — 08/07/2007 –

Breast implants for cosmetic augmentation first became available in the 1960’s and rapidly gained popularity in the 1970’s. By the 1980’s breast augmentation was the second most popular plastic surgery (after liposuction), and the motto seemed to be “the bigger the better�. The oversized implants seen everywhere in the popular media in the 80’s and 90’s clearly served to alter the public’s perception of what breasts are supposed to look like: large, taut and high. The kind of breasts that formerly appeared only in cartoons.

Today, breast augmentation is more popular than ever. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons 329,000 breast augmentation surgeries were performed in 2006. This is an almost 30 percent increase from 2003. But reason is beginning to prevail again, and patients and the public are ‘rediscovering’ the fact that the aesthetic ideal for the female breast is soft, supple, much fuller in the lower than the upper pole, and in proportion to the rest of a woman’s figure.

Patient demographics are changing, too. Women in their 30’s and 40’s (especially moms) are the fastest growing group of patients seeking breast augmentation today. These are women who have lost breast volume following pregnancy and lactation, and who simply seek to restore a natural, more youthful breast contour. They don’t want to look like they’ve had surgery; they instead wish to ‘fill out’ clothing better and feel more comfortable out of clothing. Even women who have not had children are opting for smaller, more realistic appearing breast augmentation. Professional women (including physicians!) want to look their best, but they don’t want to look “done�.

“It is very common in my practice to perform an enhancement that changes the breast profile from and ‘A’ cup to a ‘B’ cup,� says Dr. Michael Law, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Raleigh, NC, formerly of Beverly Hills. “I rarely have patients requesting large implants anymore, although there are still a few who express a desire for that busty, ‘done’ look. I counsel those patients that it is certainly possible to achieve that look, if it is truly what they want, but that I simply won’t perform any aesthetic surgery that doesn’t look natural. A woman with very large breast implants that doesn’t match her frame looks like a cartoon character, and that is not my aesthetic ideal. And these patients never have any problem finding someone who will give them the look that they want.

“Potential breast augmentation patients should also give serious thought to the following consideration: one great advantage of a conservative breast enhancement is that small implants are much more likely to feel natural. It is possible to provide an enhancement that is soft, supple and even undetectable (by touching) with a small implant, something that is never achieved with very large breast implants.
more:  http://www.sbwire.com/news/view/13207