Cosmetic surgery abroad: a safety guide

Cosmetic surgery accounts for most of the serious stories in medical travel. Not because the techniques are more dangerous than others, but because it is the area with the most advertising, the most emotional decision-making and the least verification by patients.

Check that they are a plastic surgeon, not just a doctor

In many countries any medical graduate may advertise cosmetic procedures without being a specialist in plastic surgery. The difference shows when something goes wrong in theatre.

Look up the name in the country's official specialist register and confirm the specialty, not just the medical licence. Also confirm that surgery takes place in a licensed operating theatre with a qualified anaesthetist present throughout, not in a converted consulting room.

The most expensive mistake: combining surgeries in one day

Mommy makeover style packages combine abdominoplasty, breast surgery and liposuction in a single session. Every additional hour of anaesthesia and every added area increases the risk of thrombosis, fat embolism, bleeding and healing problems. Once total operating time passes four or five hours, the complication curve rises clearly.

A prudent team separates procedures, even if that means two trips and less revenue. A team offering everything in one morning is optimising its schedule, not your safety.

The minimum pre-operative assessment

Full blood work including coagulation, an ECG according to age, an anaesthetic assessment with risk classification, a review of medication and supplements, stopping smoking at least four weeks beforehand and, in women, a review of hormonal contraception because of its effect on clot risk.

If you are travelling, you can have these tests done in your own city and send them in advance. A centre that does not ask for them is a centre that will not look at them.

Before-and-after photos: how to read them

Only compare images with the same lighting, angle and distance, without make-up or shaping clothes. Be wary of galleries where every patient has the same body type, and of images taken right after surgery, when swelling still masks the real result.

Ask for twelve-month results and, if possible, cases similar to yours, not the best cases of the surgeon's career.

What happens if you dislike the result

This is the uncomfortable conversation to have beforehand, not afterwards. Ask in writing: when a revision is assessed, who pays the surgical cost, who pays for travel and accommodation, and what counts as a complication versus aesthetic dissatisfaction.

A revision is not assessed before six to twelve months, because healing and swelling keep changing the result during that time. Any promise of an immediate touch-up is advertising.

The flight and the first two weeks

After extensive body surgery, seven to ten days before flying is prudent, with compression stockings and frequent movement. In facial surgery the issue is not thrombosis but swelling and bleeding risk in the first days.

Plan help at home, comfortable clothing, prescribed pain relief and realistic time off work. Returning to work three days after an abdominoplasty is not a plan.

Red flags

• Being unable to verify the surgeon's specialty.

• Surgery in premises that are not a licensed theatre.

• Several major procedures combined in one long session.

• A fixed quote issued over a messaging app from phone photos.

• A discount for deciding today.

• No written protocol for complications or revisions.

Keep reading

• How to choose a safe cosmetic clinic

• Septorhinoplasty and chronic nasal obstruction

• Excess skin after bariatric surgery: abdominoplasty

• Breast reconstruction: implants or DIEP