The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) just released their annual plastic surgery statistics from procedures performed by their members in 2015. The annual number of procedures done rose 2% from 2014 with close to 16 million surgery and non-surgical procedures done. To no surprise the overall number of procedures performed from 15 years ago has doubled due to the development of new products and surgical technologies.
While the historic use of the word ‘lift’ in plastic surgery almost always meant a facelift, today there are a wide variety of body lifts that collectively exceed the number of facelifts done. Breast lifts, buttock lifts, arm lifts and lower body lifts are now common. Fifteen years ago many of these types of lifts were virtually non-existant. The widespread need for body contouring after large amounts of weight loss through bariatric surgery and other weight loss methods has created the demand for these newer types of body lifts.
If the almost two million cosmetic surgeries performed by ASPS members in 1015, the top were breast augmentation, liposuction, rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty and tummy tucks. Once change from the prior year is that facelifts were no longer in the top five list. Total breast augmentations were down 2% at close to 280,000. Liposuction had a 5% increase to just over 220,000 fat removl surgeries done. Rhinoplasty surgery was a close third at 218,000 which was unchanged from 2014. Blepharoplasty or eyelid surgeries were down 1% with just over 200,000 performed. At fifth place were tummy tucks, entering the top five procedures with an increase of 10% from the prior year with close to 128,000 abdominal reshaping operations done.
With the over 14 million non-surgical and minimally invasive procedures done in 2015, the top five were Botox, injectable fillers, chemical peels, laser hair removal and microdermabrasion. Botox injections has lead this category for years and came in at close to 7 million patients treated. (up 1%) Soft tissue fillers were a distant second with almost 2.5 million patients injected. (up 6%) Chemical peels were up 5% (1.3 million), laser hair removal was unchanged and microdermabrasion down 9%.
Buttock enhancement procedures continue to increase in numbers as the U.S. population make-up changes and the awareness and acceptability of these procedures becomes more widespread. It is also a function of more plastic surgeons doing the buttock enhancement surgeries. Not surprisingly fat grafting (Brazilian Butt Lift) leads the way with almost 15,000 procedures done in 2015. (up almost 30%) Buttock implants was also up in a similar percentage with almost 5,000 surgical lifts done.Buttock implants were also up over 30% with just over 2,500 procedures performed.
One interesting gender change was seen in breast reduction surgery. An increasing number of men are having gynecomastia reduction surgery (over 27,000) which accounted for over 40% of all breast reduction surgeries performed.
While the annual plastic surgery statistics never show a dramatic change in one single year, they do show patterns of surgeon and societal preferences when compared over a longer period of time. This can be seen in the number of body contouring procedures such as buttock enhancements and the ongoing high number of Botox injection treatments done.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana