Extreme Plastic Surgery Makeover Show Panned in New Documentary

Dr. Kelly Killeen spoke with MedPage Today for a Culture Clinic piece on “The Swan: Behind the Mirror,” a new documentary about the Fox makeover show that aired in 2004 and 2005. Contestants on “The Swan” went through months of plastic surgery, dieting and exercise without being allowed to look in a mirror, then had a dramatic reveal and competed in a beauty pageant. In the documentary, former contestants and doctors look back at the ethical problems behind the show.Dr. Killeen told MedPage Today that “The Swan” is not well regarded among plastic surgeons. “That’s just not how plastic surgery should ever be ... it’s demoralizing,” she said. “And to have it all broadcast on television is awful.”Surgeons on the show fit as many procedures as they could into the 10 hours each contestant was under anesthesia. Dr. Killeen explained that long operations carry a higher risk of complications, which is why multiple elective surgeries are usually split up, especially when they involve different parts of the body. “Patients just don’t heal well when you’re operating all over somebody’s body,” she said. She added that a calorie-deficit diet is never appropriate during recovery, and that contestants changing each other’s dressings, without knowing their surgeries would need upkeep for life, reflects a lack of informed consent.She also took issue with how clinicians on the show described contestants’ features as not “ideal” and in need of being “fixed,” language she said is aimed most often at women from non-white ethnic backgrounds. “I think it’s very dangerous when we start telling people they’re not ideal,” she said. Her lesson for doctors: “patients are not promotional material.”In her own practice, combination surgery follows the rule she described. For a mommy makeover, she keeps elective operating time to six hours or less and stages longer plans about three months apart. She has also written about why post-op follow-up visits are half of your surgical result.Read the full article on MedPageToday.com