A US surgeon has racked up three public complaints related to his reported mishandling of aesthetic procedures, including gluteal fat grafting – also known as a Brazilian butt lift or BBL – the latest accusing him of placing drains too deeply after liposuction.
The patient had to be admitted to hospital after Dr Julio Clavijo-Alvarez inserted drains improperly and failed to document the complications in a follow-up visit.
Clavijo-Alvarez saw the patient in 2021 at the New Life Plastic Surgery clinic in Miami for a Brazilian butt lift and placed a Jackson-Pratt (JP) drain under the rectus abdominis muscles, under the peritoneum, and inside the abdominal cavity.
According to the complaint, “the prevailing professional standard of care required the respondent to refrain from placing a JP drain” in any of these areas, reports Medpage Today.
The next day the patient, suffering from back and abdominal pain, had the drain in her abdominal cavity removed at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
A few days later, the patient returned to Clavijo-Alvarez, who documented their meeting, but reported that the patient had had no pain post-BBL, the complaint alleged, and failed to record the subsequent hospital stays, which the Department of Health says was a violation of Florida statute.
Pat Pazmiño, MD, a plastic surgeon and owner of Miami Aesthetic, told MedPage Today that in the normal course of liposuction, water and epinephrine are injected into the layer of fat between the skin and muscle to help limit bleeding and create working space for the surgeon.
After liposuction, a drain is placed in that layer for any remaining water to escape, helping the patient heal more quickly and comfortably.
“If you can think of the abdomen as a five-storey building, we’re only supposed to be working in the attic. The drain (in this case) ended up on the second floor,” said Pazmiño, who often reviews complaints as an expert for the Florida Department of Health.
“So it was really way too deep, and there’s no use for a drain there…”
Clavijo-Alvarez had two other complaints filed against him from 2021 and 2022. The first centred on findings from an inspection of a different clinic where he was working called Jireh Cosmetic Centre Corp.
Pazmiño said it is common for surgeons to move between clinics or for clinics to change names.
Only a few months before the complaint about the BBL drains, the Department of Health found that on one or more occasions, Clavijo-Alvarez didn’t perform or document a preoperative examination, did not obtain informed written consent from the patient on risks of the procedure and anaesthesia, and removed more than the established limit of supernatant fat from a patient during liposuction.
The clinic, the complaint alleged, had items missing from the crash cart and employed a nurse without post-anaesthesia care unit experience to monitor patients recovering from anaesthesia.
In the 2022 complaint, also from New Life Plastic Surgery, another inspection found blank, pre-signed prescriptions from Clavijo-Alvarez for oxycodone and diazepam in an “unsecured area” of the clinic, which the Department of Health alleged was grounds for disciplinary action by the medical board.
The Florida Department of Health filings serve to further cement South Florida as a hotspot for dangerous and sometimes deadly Brazilian butt lifts, though the events occurred before the state's legislators passed a law in May 2023 with additional safety measures for BBLs.
These complaints follow a lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died in 2021 from a pulmonary fat embolism after her surgeon, working out of Seduction Cosmetic Centre in Miami, reportedly presented her with false paperwork and punctured her abdominal wall and internal organs during a BBL.
Clavijo-Alvarez’s physician profile lists his Florida medical licence as “Clear/Active” and does not note any discipline beyond the public complaints, which could include fines, suspension, remedial classes, or revocation as a result of hearings before the medical board.
Clavijo-Alvarez, Department of Health general counsel, and the Florida Board of Medicine did not respond to requests for comment from MedPage Today.
Medpage Today article – Another Miami Surgeon Faces Brazilian Butt Lift Complaints (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Brazilian butt lift: Behind the world’s most dangerous cosmetic surgery
The Bottom Line – the costs and risks of the butt-lift