The most unusual surgery trends of 2011

Cosmetic buttocks injections

In February, the Associated Press (via CBC) reported that a woman from London died after having a cosmetic buttocks injection in a Philadelphia hotel room.

According to a report in the UK-based The First Post, it’s suspected that 20-year-old Claudia Seye Aderotimi died of a heart attack after silicone entered her circulatory system.

“How could a woman put herself in danger for a bigger booty,” you ask? Well, before judging Aderotimi, consider that she is far from alone in risking her life for her looks. The First Post refers to three woman who have recently died after having plastic surgery, including a former Miss Argentina who died after receiving a legal buttocks enhancement. A 2007 study published in the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that 48 percent of women surveyed said they would be interested in getting cosmetic surgery, while 27 percent said they would possibly be interested.

Elfin ears

Would you undergo body-modification surgery to have your ears permanently sculpted into a point at the top?

In April, Good Morning America reported on a “new trend” in plastic surgery: elfin ears. According to the report, the pointy ear look is achieved by slicing the cartilage and sewing it back together to look like a point. A doctor interviewed for the piece says this is a potentially dangerous procedure that is very difficult to reverse and could lead to permanent disfigurement of the ear.

Breast augmentation while awake

The Daily Mail reported in June that a clinic in Birmingham, U.K. had begun to perform elective cosmetic surgery using a combination of local anaesthetic and sedation, rather than a general anaesthetic-which would involve the patient being completely unconscious.

Who would choose to be awake for something like a breast augmentation or a face lift? Plenty of people it seems. According to the article, breast augmentation surgery has been dubbed “the lunchtime boob job,” since patients are conscious during the local anaesthetic and can go home as soon as one hour after surgery.

Tongue surgery to improve speech

In August, the Telegraph reported on a British teen who had undergone surgery on her tongue in order to improve her ability to pronounce certain words in the Korean language.

Rhiannon Brooksbank-Jones, 19, studied Korean for two years, but struggled with particular sounds, she told the Telegraph. Her speech difficulties were due to a condition known as “tongue tie,” in which the flap of skin underneath the tongue (the frenulum) is unusually thick and results in a shorter than average tongue.

The teen was so intent of speaking the Korean language correctly that she opted to have a lingual frenectomy-a 15-minute operation that involved an incision in the tongue’s flap of skin. The result: Her tongue is now about 1 cm longer, and her pronunciation has improved.

At-home buttocks augmentation

A Florida woman nearly died in November after an unlicensed “doctor” pumped her buttocks full of toxic materials one would commonly find in a garage. Oneal Morris claimed to be a doctor and injected her patient’s butt with cement, mineral oil and tire sealant in what was supposed to be a buttocks enhancement surgery. The injection site was even sealed with Super Glue.

The Miami Herald reported that investigators suspect the self-proclaimed doctor is “part of an underground network of scam artists who have been offering ‘pumping parties’ and home buttocks augmentations across South Florida.”
Morris charged $700 US for the procedure, which allegedly took place in a residential Miami Gardens home using tools such as rubber tubing.