750,000
Americans travel abroad for surgery every year
About
750,000 Americans travel abroad to receive medical care and plastic surgery
every year, usually in hopes of cheaper rates. But a new report from U.S.
health officials reveals that some Americans have contracted severe infections
from getting plastic surgery—including breast augmentations, liposuction and
buttock lifts, among other procedures—in foreign countries, highlighting the
possible risks of medical tourism.
In August
2013, a Maryland doctor treated two women who had developed serious infections
after undergoing cosmetic surgery at the same clinic in the Dominican Republic.
The two women told the physician that they had an acquaintance in Massachusetts
with “similar problems” after having surgery at that clinic. It was determined
that the women’s surgical sites were infected with rapidly growing mycobacteria
(RGM)—a bacteria that’s often resistant to standard antibiotics. The doctor
alerted the Maryland Department of Health, and in collaboration with the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a nation-wide investigation
was launched.
The probe
identified 21 people with RGM in six states who traveled to the Dominican
Republic for cosmetic surgery, according to a report published Wednesday in the
CDC’s journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. According to the report, the median
number of cosmetic surgeries per person was two, with 15 people getting
liposuction, 12 getting abdominoplasty, eight receiving buttocks augmentation,
six receiving breast augmentation and four getting a breast reduction.
Thirteen
of the people visited the same clinic in the Dominican Republic, which the
country’s Ministry of Health says is now closed. How the infections were caused
is unknown, but report author Dr. Doug Esposito, a medical epidemiologist with
the CDC’s Travelers’ Health Branch, says “any breach in sterile technique” can
causes bacteria to get into a person’s wound.
A severe
RGM infection can cause what the report authors refer to as “painful nodules
that develop into persistent, discharging abscesses.” Infections can sometimes
be missed, since the bacteria can take more time to be identified during
testing. Most of the people in the study reported swelling, pain, scarring and
fluid drainage, and eight people were hospitalized, some more than once.
Medical records available for nine of the people revealed they underwent
surgery to treat the infection, which included procedures like drainage or
implant removal.
Close to
90% of the people said cost was a factor in their decision to travel abroad for
their cosmetic surgery. In some cases, people can save up to 88% on cosmetic
procedures by getting them outside the U.S. Data on medical tourism suggests
that up to 750,000 U.S. residents travel to other countries for medical care.
Most of the people in the study told researchers that they learned about the
clinic they visited from friends and family. Some learned about it online, and
one person say a TV advertisement.
“[Medical
tourism] is a rapidly growing market, and we have relatively little data on the
extent of this practice,” says Esposito. “We need to understand the nature of
the problem and the risks people might be experiencing.”
Health
authorities are not officially advising against medical tourism, but the
researchers say people need to do their homework beforehand. “The CDC
recommends that potential medical tourists really research the medical provider
they are pursuing,” says study author Joanna Gaines, a senior epidemiologist
also with the CDC’s Travelers’ Health Branch.
“You want
someone who is licensed to practice in the country that they are in, but know
those standards may be different from those that we have in the U.S.”
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