Are buttock implants safe?

Plastic surgeons have been searching for a half a century for things to inject to make buttocks larger.  But injecting liquids or gels just isn't safe in the buttocks. That's because there are some pretty large blood vessels in the derriere. And hundreds of people, mostly women or men that want to look like women, have found that out the hard way - by dying. You might have heard about the Argentinean model that died recently after her buttocks were injected to make them larger.



So, why are doctors still injecting things into buttocks? There are thousands of discussions about so-called safe injections on the Internet. Silicone has gotten a bad name and now it's been replaced by polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). That's a type of plastic cement used by orthopedic surgeons to cement things into bone. But this stuff easily gets into blood vessels and it's killed many people by traveling to the lungs, the brain, and even the heart.

I do Not perform buttock implants or injections in my practice. Silicone implants in the buttock may shift or move around leading to cosmetic deformity or even fat atrophy and permanent damage. Injections of fat into the gluteal or buttock region may create calcified tissue and fat atrophy leading to lumpy, irregular appearance. Obviously, as we sit down, pressure is directly applied to the injected or implanted areas that may lead to a high rate of problems including: seroma (fluid collection), fat atrophy, pressure necrosis, shifting or malposition, and constant pain.