Back in April I attended the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) annual meeting in Orlando, FL. This year featured a half day series of panel discussions about some of the newest products and techniques available, called their "Hot Topics" session. If you want to find out how the medical community really feels about some of the newest procedures available, then an auditorium full of plastic surgeons is certainly the place to be.

Some of the notable new procedures that were discussed included barbed sutures (for Thread Lift procedures), Mesotherapy, Fraxel, Thermage, and Titan. Here’s a brief overview of how each procedure was perceived, and even a few surveys that give a better idea of how these procedures are viewed.

Barbed Sutures (Thread Lift)

This panel discussion included three notable surgeons, all of whom use a Thread Lift or Quick Lift (there are many different names) procedure for temporary facial rejuvenation. The doctors on the panel said that between 10% and 18% of their patients that receive this procedure are unhappy with the results for one reason or another. And the cost? One doctor said it would be about 3 times what you would spend on facial fillers, another charges $400 per thread, using around 8 threads, plus a $500 dollar facility fee and the other charges $6,900 for the neck and face.

They agree that the ideal patient is in her mid 40’s to early 50’s with minor skin laxity and desires minor and non-permanent changes. One doctor said that marketing these procedures as a facelift did a disservice to patients, since these procedures offer only temporary results and cannot achieve the same results as a traditional facelift.

After the panel had concluded, the moderator polled the audience of plastic surgeons, asking if, in light of what they had just heard, they viewed such procedures more positively or more negatively than they did prior to the discussion. 38% viewed the procedure in a more positive light, while 62% looked upon it more negatively.

Mesotherapy

At the beginning of this panel, the audience was asked 2 more survey questions (they really liked the survey questions at this meeting and I found them pretty enlightening too). The questions were: "Are you aware of anyone offering or promoting Mesotherapy or Lipodissolve in your area,” and “Have you used either of them?” Although 75% of the surgeons in the audience were aware of other offices offering one or both of the procedures, only 11% made them available to their patients.

The discussion of the procedure was given by Dr. Leroy Young who has put together a standardized study to help better understand the actual benefits that Mesotherapy and like procedures can offer. The basic feel in the room was that these procedures are too expensive and don’t really offer any benefit (when Dr. Young said he would not be accepting volunteers with unrealistic expectations, one doctor behind me even said, and I’m quoting, “If they volunteer they have unrealistic expectations”). Most of what we know about these procedures are just based on anecdotal evidence form the patients and doctors that have used them, so hopefully Dr. Young’s study can provide some concrete findings for this now controversial procedure.

Fraxel, Thermage, and Titan

For this final panel of the afternoon, these three facial rejuvenation procedures were combined, with each one being discussed by a different speaker. Both Thermage and Titan use Radio Frequency Energy (RFE) to rejuvenate facial skin, while Fraxel uses laser energy to treat thousands of tiny skin regions instead of treating the whole face at once. All three are marketed on the promise of providing better results with a shorter recovery time than tradition laser skin resurfacing.

During the panel discussion, all three surgeons said that in ideal cases, these promises can come true. However, for those less than ideal cases patients may have to settle for minimal results. With prices ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, the cost can sometimes loom larger than the benefit.

Again there was an audience poll. The audience was asked if each of the three products was (would be) successful in their practice. For Fraxel 0% said yes, for Thermage 17% said yes, and Titan received a 7% yes vote.

Remember This

One thing you have to keep in mind about the responses to all of these panels is that more than half of the surgeons in the audience don’t offer any of these new products in their office, which means they don’t have a lot of, if any, first hand experience. Most of them are also to the results that they can get through surgery, which are always going to be more of an improvement than minimally invasive procedures, no matter how good they are.