With the promise of inexpensive procedures luring patients to travel abroad for plastic surgery, medical tourism has become an expanding, multi-billion-dollar industry. But while the initial procedure may be cheap, it can place a significant burden on U.S. public health systems when patients return from abroad with complications.
A new study by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital describes the magnitude of medical complications that can result from plastic surgery abroad. Their study is published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.