In June, the Florida Board of Medicine approved an emergency rule that limited the number of Brazilian butt lifts Florida plastic surgeons can perform each day to three and mandated the use of ultrasound during the procedure. Now, an appeals court has rejected a challenge to the emergency BBL ruling. 

A group known as Surgeons for Safety and seven individual doctors challenged the emergency rule at the 3rd District Court of Appeal, arguing in part that the new restrictions were not justified and would not boost patient safety. 

Brazilian butt lifts have drawn widespread attention, particularly in South Florida, and the emergency rule pointed to 10 verified deaths during the past three years of patients who underwent the procedures. Deaths have occurred because of pulmonary fat embolisms, which involve fat getting into the patients’ bloodstreams. In a four-page ruling Wednesday, a panel of the Miami-based appeals court declined to block the emergency rule. 

“The petitioners (Surgeons for Safety and the doctors) question whether the number of mortalities constitute a sufficient emergency, where there has been no attempt to quantify the total number of procedures,” said the decision. “We do not believe we are in a position to second guess the Board of Medicine’s judgment concerning the number of acceptable deaths involved in purely elective cosmetic surgeries. In addition, the rule contains plausible and rational statements for the requirement it imposes.” 

Read the full article on CBS Miami.