Safer Brazilian Butt Lifts to go on offer in UK to stop women wanting bigger bottoms going abroad

10 October 2022, 16:56

British surgeons are now encouraged to carry out a 'lite' version of the risky Brazilian Butt Lift, health chiefs have announced.

The procedure, made famous by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian was shunned by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) in 2018 after of a series of deaths.

British mother of three Leah Cambridge, 29, died in 2018 after suffering three heart attacks after undergoing the procedure in Turkey. She died from a a blood clot after paying £6,500 in cash to get a BBL at Elite Aftercare in Izmir, Turkey. Her father, Craig Cambridge, 51, killed himself in April 2021, with an inquest earlier this year attributing his suicide, in part, to his daughter's death.

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Now, under new guidance plastic surgeons in the UK are encouraged to do superficial gluteal lipofilling (SGL).

This is, effectively, a lighter version of a Brazilian Butt Lift but differs in that the fat is only injected below the skin.

For comparison, a BBL can see fat injected directly into the muscles of the buttocks themselves, giving them a larger, curvier form but it poses the risk of surgeons accidentally injecting fat into the bloodstream. This can cause potentially deadly blockages.

BAAPS said its advice had changed because all reports of death from the butt lifts have been in procedures where fat was injected into the muscle layer, and therefore closer to blood vessels.

The procedure will still give people a curvier figure, it will not provide the same results due to the fat not being injected as deeply.

BAAPS president Marc Pacifico said the new guidelines, circulated to the the body's 350-plus membership, will result in safer outcomes for patients.

He said: "The deaths recorded with BBL have all had breeches of the fascia (a thin casing of connective tissue between the skin and muscles) with fat injected into the muscle.

"So, it’s no to BBL but yes to Superficial Gluteal Lipofilling (SGL) where the fascia is not compromised."

However, he added that the BAAPS was still concerned about the number of Britons flying out to get butt lifts overseas.

At least 20 Britons have died after going under the knife in Turkey alone since the start of 2019.