Patients forced to seek emergency treatment over dermal fillers

MON, 29 JAN, 2024 - 02:30

LIZ DUNPHY

Three patients who suffered severe complications after having dermal fillers injected were forced to seek emergency treatment from a skin expert in Cork and Dublin in the past seven days.

Two of the patients had been injected abroad and one had been injected in Dublin.

It comes as a major new study warns that dermal fillers may damage the immune system's ability to fight disease by blocking lymphatic channels. 

While the State's medicines watchdog has moved to improve the safety of filler products, the administration of such procedures and clinical practice remains notoriously unregulated.

The Department of Health is now working with the Health Products Regulatory Authority to consider dermal filler regulation.

Dr Patrick Treacy, founder of the Ailesbury Clinic, said 74 serious cases of problem dermal filler attended the Ailesbury Clinics in Cork and Dublin for specialist treatment in less than two years.

Hyaluronic acid, the substance used to make cosmetic filler, can cause complications including blindness, stroke and necrosis  — tissue death — if injected into a blood vessel.

But a new study suggests dermal fillers may also interfere with the immune system's ability to fight disease by blocking and damaging important lymphatic channels in the face.

New York-based plastic surgery practice Bodysculpt founder and surgical director Spero Theodorou said that evidence now suggests that all filler patients will have some degree of lymphatic blockage, even if they have no lumps or visible swelling.

Lymphatic channels form a fundamental part of the immune system and also helps defend the body against infection and disease.

But filler can block and permanently damage these important and delicate structures, Dr Theodorou said.

Dr Theodorou said that the problem is with the substance itself, so no matter how skilled the injector, the substance can still block these lymphatic channels.

He immediately stopped providing filler at his practice following the research findings, he said.

“I cannot in good conscience provide this to my patients anymore because of what I saw,” Dr Theodorou told the Irish Examiner.

“And if we don't raise our hand as doctors and say ‘hey this has to stop or somehow has to be changed’ we're not doing our jobs.”

Institute of Dermatologists and Blackrock Clinic consultant dermatologist and University College Dublin associate clinical professor Caitriona Ryan said that although dermal fillers can block lymphatics, they are not dangerous.

“What they're saying is definitely true in that filler can be a blockage to lymphatics, especially in certain areas, like tear trough filler under the eyes."

But she said that there is no scientific foundation for fears that filler could impact the immune system or increase cancer risk.

Source: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41319490.html