ST GEORGE Private Hospital specialist Damian Marucci was honoured recently at the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons NSW Chapter's inaugural awards.
The co-owner of Aesthetic Day Surgery at Kogarah won best teaching session for his presentation on skin grafts and flaps, most commonly used in reconstructive surgery following cancer or trauma.
Dr Marucci performs reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, including paediatric cranio facial surgery for children born with abnormalities of the head or face.
He said he became a plastic surgeon because it was "the most interesting and exciting field of surgery there is".
"We operate on every single part of the body, from the top of the head to the tips of the toes," Dr Marucci said.
"The techniques we use, whether it's in reconstructive or cosmetic surgery, involve precision and delicacy."
The Oxford University trained specialist warned any NSW doctor could call themselves a cosmetic surgeon.
"No one can call themselves a plastic surgeon unless they have done a fellowship through the Australasian College of Surgeons," he said.
He also warned Australians about the pitfalls of having cosmetic surgery, such as breast augmentation, in developing countries.
"The thing about it is that if you are putting a foreign material like this [breast implant] into someone's body, do you really know the hygiene quality of the surgery you are going to and the qualifications of the surgeon?" he said.
"The problem is you're back home in a week and often complications aren't apparent for three or four weeks, so I see patients all the time who have come back from Thailand and they've got a wound infection and the implant has to be removed, and they call up the guy in Thailand and he says, 'yeah, come back here and we'll do it for nothing', and it's like, 'yeah great, that's doesn't help me'."
"The travel companies that offer this always over-estimate and say breast augmentation in Sydney costs $18,000, which it doesn't, it's closer to $10,000 to $12,000 roughly, whereas if you go overseas it costs $8000, well that's only $2000 difference.
"I've actually been approached by a company to do that [surgeries overseas] and I'm not really quite sure if that is something I want to be involved with because at the end of the day, I'll still be seeing the patient here."
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