Liposuction is a cosmetic surgery used to remove excessive fat deposited between the muscle and the skin. It involves breaking a part of the fat cells and removing them through various suction techniques.
Plastic surgery consultants say the treatments that some dermatologists perform in their liposuction clinics can be termed as a crime, legally in Kuwait.
They suggested that the insistence on performing these treatments endangers the lives of patients. So, there is a need for the Medical Licensing Department in Kuwait to be very strict with regard to such practices.
A consultant plastic surgeon and head of maxillofacial surgery at the Ministry of Health Dr. Emad Al-Najada said, “A dermatologist is not allowed to perform liposuction like a plastic surgeon. Ministerial law No. 245/2017, which was issued by the former minister of Health Dr. Jamal Al-Harbi, highlights the specialities that are allowed to perform liposuction and such operations, the places where they can be performed, and the quantities allowed to be suctioned.”
He explained that what is currently taking place in the name of liposuction in some clinics is not permitted according to the law, either by the way of general or local anaesthesia.
Operations that require total anaesthesia must be carried out in authorized centres and hospitals. Therefore, the practices that are being carried out currently, in some clinics in Kuwait are wrong. This matter needs more attention from the Medical Licensing Department.
Also, it has been noticed that some dermatology clinics, while performing liposuction, extract fats in large quantities from the patients. This puts the lives of these patients at risk.
A consultant of burn surgery at the Ministry of Health and Head of the Kuwait Cosmetic Association, Dr. Hisham Borzek, said, “The law has allowed certain specialities to perform some cosmetic procedures. The Medical Licensing Department is the supervisory body that has the right to carry out inspection and punish if necessary. It must ensure that doctors follow these rules.”
He stressed the importance of educating patients by addressing the administration to focus on educational activities in this regard. Previously in 2016 personnel from the Criminal Investigation Department have arrested an unidentified plastic surgeon and referred him to the Public Prosecution for conducting plastic surgery and liposuction without a license and causing the death of a 30-year-old Kuwaiti woman. The tragic case of the victim is considered a scandal for the Ministry of Health and those involved in it.
It has been reported that the doctor got arrested after a Kuwaiti filed a complaint with the Public Prosecution following his daughter’s death, a mother of five children, due to a medical error during liposuction at a private clinic. In the same matter the Kuwaiti had asked the Public Prosecutor to conduct a post-mortem on his daughter’s body to determine the cause of death and investigate the issue.
Public Prosecution had ordered an investigation and after collecting the data the investigators discovered that the doctor did not have a license to carry out liposuction and that the surgeries were carried out at rented medical centres and hospitals in violation of the laws laid down by the Ministry of Health.
And hence, stricter supervision in this regard by the Medical Licensing Department is highly desirable for such practices.
