Brazilian Butt Lift Safety and Florida Legislature: What You Should Know, How You Can Help

The authors are pleased to present an expert video roundtable discussion on gluteal augmentation with fat, known widely as the Brazilian Butt Lift, with a focus on the patient safety bills currently being voted on by the Florida legislature (Video). The discussants include a panel of leading experts in aesthetic surgery, and the video roundtable was recorded live at The Aesthetic Meeting 2023 in Miami, FL, USA. The panelists provide an overview of the current challenges, areas of research, and education being undertaken to improve patient safety in gluteal augmentation. As the recording took place, Florida legislators were preparing to vote on bills that would regulate how gluteal fat grafting should be performed and whether plastic surgeons, nurse, or physician's assistants should perform this procedure. The message of these panelists is singular and clear: only board-certified plastic surgeons should perform gluteal augmentation with fat in its entirety. The discussants believe that what happens in Florida represents both an opportunity and a framework for how the rest of the United States will respond to the questions posed about gluteal augmentation.

The overarching goal of this video roundtable is to protect patients and to place their safety at the forefront of the discussion. They review the significance of using ultrasound during gluteal augmentation with fat to allow for clear visual confirmation that the cannula is not in the muscle during fat graft injection. This has been shown and published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal^1–3 and ASJ Open Forum⁴ and is directly related to patient outcomes and mortality rates. This research has helped save lives. It is imperative that government regulators stand with the board-certified plastic surgeons to improve safety measures that will lead to better patient outcomes and a continued decrease in mortality rates not only in Florida, but worldwide.

The panelists issue a call to action to all viewers. Visit the following link to let Florida legislators know that you stand with patient safety and that only surgeons should do surgery: mia.one/house.

Supplemental Material

This article contains supplemental material located online at www.asjopenforum.com.

Disclosures

Dr Kenkel reports sponsor-supported funding from Allergan (Irvine, CA), Brijjit Medical (Atlanta, GA), 24 Bellus Medical (Dallas, TX), InMode (Irvine, CA), and Venus Concept (Toronto, ON, Canada) for research studies unrelated to this submitted work. He receives payment from The Aesthetic Society for his role as editor-in-chief of ASJ Open Forum. Dr Pazmiño is a consultant for Clarius (Burnaby, CA). Dr Garcia Jr is a consultant and on the speakers panel for Solta Medical (Hayward, CA), Mentor (Irvine, CA), BD (Franklin Lakes, NJ), and MTF Biologics (Edison, NJ); receives royalties from Springer Publishing (Berlin, Germany); is the president-elect of the Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation (ASERF; the Aesthetic Society, Garden Grove, CA); and is a consultant to the Gluteal Fat Grafting Task Force (ASERF). The remaining author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

Funding

The publication of this article, including payment of the article processing charge, was funded by the Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation (ASERF; The Aesthetic Society, Garden Grove, CA).