Statistics recently released by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery offer insight into global plastic surgery trends, suggesting that despite economic troubles, consumer demand for body contouring and facial plastic surgery procedures, as well as injectable treatments, remained high in 2009.
The ISAPS organization sent surveys to more than 30,000 plastic surgeons in 25 countries to determine the popularity of both surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures across the globe. Survey results revealed that plastic surgeons worldwide performed more than 8.5 million plastic surgeries and more than 8.7 million non-surgical cosmetic procedures last year.
The most popular body contouring procedures performed by plastic surgeons included liposuction, breast augmentation and tummy tuck, whereas the most frequently performed facial plastic surgery procedures included rhinoplasty and eyelid surgery. In 2009, liposuction, breast augmentation and blepharoplasty procedures were each performed more than 1 million times worldwide.
Among non-surgical cosmetic treatments, injectable fillers, such as Juvederm and Radiesse, and wrinkle-relaxing injectables, such as Botox and Dysport, were the most popular internationally, however laser treatments, including laser hair removal, skin resurfacing and vein treatment were also frequently performed.
U.S. patients favored the surgical and non-surgical procedures that ranked highest internationally, a fact that is statistically unsurprising given that U.S. plastic surgeons performed more procedures in 2009 than surgeons from any other country (more than 3 million procedures.)
Plastic surgeons from Brazil and China performed more than 2 million procedures each last year, ranking these countries second and third, respectively, for total number of procedures performed by plastic surgeons internationally.
There was a wide gap between the number of procedures performed by plastic surgeons in the top three countries and the other two countries that rounded out the top five, as plastic surgeons from fourth- and fifth-ranked India and Mexico did not perform even 1 million total cosmetic procedures in 2009.
