Prominent plastic surgeons in the country have urged women with smaller buttocks to refrain from seeking services from unqualified practitioners for augmentation or any other body enhancement procedures.
The surgeons cautioned that complications arising from buttock enhancement could be fatal, particularly when carried out by inexperienced individuals.
Experts revealed that untrained practitioners often lack a thorough understanding of human anatomy, increasing the risk of life-threatening complications associated with cosmetic surgeries performed by such individuals.
They highlighted potential complications, including infections, nerve damage, excessive bleeding, and death.
Recently, Nigeria has seen a rise in people claiming to offer cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries despite having minimal training, which has caused significant concern among established medical professionals.
This surge in unregulated practices led to the death of a 36-year-old woman, known only as Abiola, who reportedly passed away during a buttock enlargement procedure at a clinic in the Lekki-Phase 1 area of Lagos State.
In response to this situation, several surgeons expressed to our correspondent that the increasing number of unqualified individuals entering the plastic surgery field is alarming.
They emphasized that plastic surgeries, such as cosmetic procedures for buttocks and breast enhancement, require specialized training, expertise, and regulatory oversight.
The experts condemned the trend of inadequately trained individuals carrying out complex procedures, which has resulted in harm to patients.
While blaming the rise of such practices on inadequate law enforcement, the surgeons highlighted the necessity for public awareness and the importance of women verifying the credentials of any practitioner before undergoing cosmetic procedures.
Professor Titus Chukwuanukwu, a specialist in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Anambra State, called for immediate reforms to regulate cosmetic surgery practices in the country.
Chukwuanukwu expressed concern over the alarming increase in the number of individuals in Nigeria performing cosmetic surgeries without the proper qualifications.
He pointed out that these unqualified individuals typically lack the necessary anatomical knowledge and surgical skills required for such intricate procedures.
Emphasizing the extensive training needed to become a cosmetic surgeon, the professor noted that the absence of proper regulation and oversight has exacerbated the issue, leading to many patients experiencing life-altering complications following their procedures.
He added, “We should let people know all these surgeries are special procedures. Buttock enlargement, breast enlargement, and all that fall within the realm of plastic surgeons.
“For you to become a plastic surgeon, you must have gone through the rigours of training to become a medical doctor; that takes a minimum of six years in the university. Now for you to become a plastic surgeon that again takes you another minimum of six years and that will be after housemanship.
“Immediately you become a doctor, you do one year of housemanship, and you do another year of youth service before you now go into residency. And most of these procedures, by the time you have finished your training as a plastic surgeon, many of us usually undertake some super-specialist training again in these areas of training; cosmetic surgery and all that.”
Continuing, he said, “It is unthinkable that what we have seen in Nigeria is that people just wake up one day no matter their level of training, no matter what they are doing and they said they have become cosmetic surgeons.
“For you to do such a surgery, you have to have a good knowledge of anatomy, the structure of the body; which level is which level, what happens at which level of the layers of the body. We have to place what, what goes through where? We have blood vessels, we have nerves, we have all sorts of things in the system.
“Which one is where? What is the function of each one? If you damage this one, what will it cause to the person? And that’s what in Nigeria now people of all manner of character have started going into and harming people every day.
“It is completely abnormal that in Nigeria, people go about doing all sorts of things and even regulatory bodies do not do anything. Cosmetic surgery, breast enlargement, buttocks enlargement, and reduction, are not areas of practice that anybody can go into. It’s not like painting the nail, which anybody can do.
“We say that beauty now is in the hands of people who just beautify people. Those things that are done externally are different from what you need to now open up to somebody to do. So, it should not be practised by anybody at all, apart from those who are trained and satisfied. Not even every surgeon that goes into that procedure.”
Chukwuanukwu further criticised the regulatory bodies for their inadequate response to the growing problem.
“When we, as professionals, raise concerns, it is not for our own benefit but to protect the public. However, often our warnings go unheeded, and the regulatory bodies fail to take effective action,” he noted.
The lack of proper regulatory frameworks has led to challenges for well-trained surgeons, as highlighted by Chukwuanukwu.
He emphasized the importance of only allowing properly trained and certified professionals to perform invasive procedures, advocating for stricter certification processes and better enforcement of regulations in the cosmetic surgery industry.
Chukwuanukwu urged the government to work closely with professional bodies to educate the public on the risks of unregulated procedures and prevent individuals from becoming victims of inexperienced practitioners.
Similarly, Odunayo stressed the extensive training required to become a plastic surgeon and the necessity for specialized professionals to perform cosmetic surgeries.
He expressed concerns about the misleading portrayal of procedures on social media by untrained practitioners, which could lead to dangerous situations due to the public’s lack of awareness about the qualifications required for such operations.
Both experts emphasized the importance of safeguarding the health and well-being of the public in the field of cosmetic surgery.
He stated, “When it comes to plastic surgery, reconstructive surgery, certainly there is no room for anyone getting involved if he is not trained in that specialty. And we have a lot of people who go for a two-week course, and then they are unleashed into society.
“That’s unfortunate because society doesn’t know who is who, and when they present pictures and made up stuff videos and pretend as if they are the ones that have done the cases, of course, the public gets drawn into it, they get interested and unfortunately they get into it.
“There is specialisation; anyone who ventures into or doubles into that kind of thing after maybe two weeks course is certainly not doing the public any good.
“The training in buttock enlargement and all sorts of cosmetic surgery involves a mechanism. And it is undertaken only by those first who are medically trained and you know that training is a six-year undergraduate after which two years of the usual NYSC and internship, then they go into intense residency training.
“To be able to veer into cosmetic surgery, you will do a residency of about five or six years that qualifies you as a plastic surgeon. And then you go through an additional specific. So, we are looking at years, apprenticeships and all that. When the public gets to see videos and pictures of people who try to learn something that should have been acquired over those years in two weeks or one month, then you can imagine the kind of risk they are subjecting themselves to.”
Professor Odunayo vehemently criticized the current regulatory environment as feeble and inadequate, emphasizing the need for more rigorous enforcement of existing laws and harsher penalties for unauthorized practitioners to safeguard the public.
He noted that in countries with stringent regulatory frameworks, illegal cosmetic surgery practices are forced underground, minimizing patient risks.
Odunayo advocated for robust regulations in plastic and reconstructive surgery to prevent unqualified individuals from jeopardizing public health.
