Florida Emergency Order: 3 BBLs Per Day

South Florida has become the capital of the Brazilian butt lift (BBL) surgery as women fly in from across the country to undergo the popular procedure. The Florida Board of Medicine made a swift move on 6/3/2022 to limit the number of BBLs performed a day by plastic surgeons to three which expires in 90 days.

The Three BBL Surgery a Day Limit

The board ruled to limit the number of BBLs a surgeon can perform each day to avoid fatigue, and advocated for an effort to reduce risk including fat embolism. Which can occur when the fat used to reshape the butt enters the bloodstream.

Ultrasound Guidance Requirement To Reinject the Fat

In addition to urging surgeons to inject the fat above the muscle, they also recommend using ultrasound technology during the procedure to avoid puncturing an artery while reinjecting.

Florida’s emergency ruling, which is in effect for 90 days, also includes a requirement for BBL surgeons to use ultrasound technology to guide them as they inject fat into a patient’s butt.

Real-time ultrasound imaging has been shown to be useful in determining the depth of the gluteal muscles during the BBL in order to avoid injecting fat in the wrong location that could result in fat embolism.

In my professional opinion Florida may be progressive with regard to this ruling, but it should be a national standard established by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons or the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

The ‘Surgical Mill’ Problem

I believe the Florida Board of Medicine should target the specific “surgical mills” where these deaths are occurring and that setting limits and the amount of surgeries that can be performed is a Band-aid solution.

If there is one takeaway about this for me, it’s that the board should look into the specific cosmetic surgery centers where this is happening. The one thing that will save lives and be incredibly simple and cost savings for the state of Florida would be to remove the Florida Department of Health as the organization that accredits these surgical centers and require that the accreditation for come from the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities.