Staying ahead of the trend
Trend(s).
Plastic surgery is no less influenced by trends in the world than anything else. In fact plastic surgery can be influenced by so many things (celebrities, social media trends, financial and economic trends.. etc) because it’s so visual, the work of others can follow patients. This can all be a good thing or a bad thing. One should hope that if a person is having a procedure done, it is for the right reason and not because of a trend. This may lead to poor results in the long term. How can we analyze this? Well for one thing, we can look at whether patients are actually satisfied with after undergoing these trendy procedures. Are they experiencing more complications or are their requiring more revisions? These are the questions that patients should be asking their providers when it comes to these trending topics in plastic surgery.
Why should you care?
As the patient, you are at the mercy of your physician. The idea is that you have chosen someone who is understanding of your wants/goals/needs and will honor those appropriately when deciding on the ideal procedure for you. Let’s take a look at how people have searched for these procedures over time. Below is a graph of the last 5 years google search trends on various breast augmentation procedures.
Post covid saw a recurrence of breast interest. However dual plane has ruled the google trend space since that time. Why is that? Do outcomes match the hype?
Do trends influence outcomes?
It should be noted that this represents only one area of interest (google). It doesn’t sample other spaces that people frequent for information these days including tik tok, instagram, and youtube. Knowing that peoples way of accessing information is changing we should take this data lightly. However it still begs the question. Do trends influence the way people access and obtain surgery, and if so does this affect outcomes for patients? Good question.
In a recent paper by Bekisz, et al. titled Picking the Right Plane: A Comparison of Total Submuscular, Dual-Plane, and Prepectoral Implant–Based Breast Reconstruction, the authors evaluated the impact of different placement of implants during breast reconstruction. They found that while total submuscular placement of breast implants/TEs was the most common, the dual plane cohort was more likely to develop of a major infection/require explantation. Whereas the prepectoral group had significantly higher rates of isolated dehiscence, seroma formation, and explantation. Overall suggesting that the absence of overlying vascularized muscle may lead to wound healing issues or the inability to tolerated problems related to wound healing.
It should be noted that this is breast reconstruction research and not related to primary breast augmentation for cosmetic efforts.
How to stay on top of the hype.
Do your homework. Do your research. Use different modes of information gathering tools to make an informed decision about which procedure is best for you. Once you find a provider, read their reviews and schedule a consultation.