There were 93 deaths among U.S. residents who traveled to the Dominican Republic (D.R.) for cosmetic surgery from 2009 through 2022, according to findings in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
While there were a mean of 4.1 deaths after cosmetic surgery from 2009 through 2018, that number rose of 13 during 2019-2020, with a peak of 17 in 2020, Elizabeth Bancroft, MD, of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, and colleagues reported.
Among a subset of the deaths that occurred during peak years, most “were found to be the result of embolic events (fat emboli or venous thromboembolism) for which a high proportion of the patients who died had risk factors, including obesity and having multiple procedures performed during the same operation,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers noted that the deaths were largely tied to…
