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In 1997 the United States federal government opened the floodgates for direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals by relaxing previous restrictions and legislation.^[1] Just one year prior, reports indicated pharmaceutical sales advertising expenditures ranged around just over half a billion dollars. By 2009, that amount had skyrocketed to nearly five billion dollars, just in direct-to-consumer advertising alone, not including advertising to physicians and clinicians. ^[2]

With the dawn of DTC advertising, consumers were able to see for themselves the plethora of prescription drugs available to them for any and every type of ailment and illness. Until that time, the average consumer was relegated to blind faith in their physician, and his advice to, “Take two of these and call me tomorrow.” A report by AARP from 2010 indicates 90% of Americans aged 18 and over have heard or seen a pharmaceutical advertisement. ^[3]

There are three basic recognized direct-to-consumer ad campaign types: product claim ads, help seeking ads, and reminder ads.^[4] These marketing types fall under various policies and laws, and are not all regulated by the FDA. Their focus on certain drugs goes from unmistakable and deliberate, to mere presumptions of knowledge about a product on the part of the consumer. 

• Product claim advertising has the most restrictions put upon it since it does mention a specific drug. Per the Food and Drug Administration, this type of marketing must make clear what the drug is for, how it can help, and what the risks are in taking it. 
•  Reminder ads, while still considered advertisements for specific drugs, are not under such stringent requirements, since they do not specifically say what conditions they treat. They are not required to list all the possible side effects and risks. Although still regulated by the FDA, the advertisements cannot portray either visually or audibly what the drug is for. Further, there are certain drugs that cannot be advertised by way of reminder advertisements because their side effects are too serious, and therefore must be mentioned, according to the policies of the FDA. 
• Help seeking ads are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission because they do involve trade policies and laws, but there is no oversight by the FDA. Help seeking ads are designed to bring consumers’ attention to such conditions as asthma and erectile dysfunction. However, the marketing does not advertise any specific drug in any way. The ads will sometimes have a phone number and the name of a pharmaceutical company where consumers are invited to call to get more information about certain conditions and their treatments.

Pro-activists for the direct-to-consumer cause tout the benefits of more knowledge on behalf of the individual patient. Such knowledge, they say, allows consumers to make more informed choices, along with their physician, as to the best course for their care. Physicians have reported a more active role on the part of the patient, which leads to a better quality of care in most instances. Patients being more informed about their own medical conditions and having and informed understanding of their healthcare could quite possibly play a very important role in provisional quality care in the United States with all the upcoming changes to healthcare laws regulations.

The question arises as to whether or not the ideals of the stronger physician/patient relationship actually work in retrograde. Naysayers point to the many physicians reporting a more aggressive approach on the part of some patients, who insist they need a certain type of medication or procedure, when it would not, in fact, be beneficial to them. Doctors report a feeling on the part of patients that the doctor is withholding something from them, when in fact the doctor simply wants not to over-diagnose or over-prescribe. Physicians describes incidents where they have had to “fire” patients due to the patients’ refusals to cooperate with what the doctor wants to prescribe for a course of treatment.

With the enactment of laws to prohibit drug companies from overstating the benefits of drugs while understating the risks and side-effects, the pharmaceutical industry has been forced to re-evaluate how it presents its products to the consumer. A 2010 report from Reuters tends to suggest it is somewhat of a cat-and-mouse game, with the FDA constantly trying to stay up-to-date on the most recent hard advertising push by ‘Big Pharma’.^[5]   

As insurance premiums and prescription prices increase, the pharmaceutical industry will have no choice but continue to push sales to stay in the market. There will have to be an eventual understanding between the physician, the patient and the regulating bodies as to how patients are informed of all their treatment options. Until then, it is ultimately up to the consumer to make informed educated choices about their health, while remembering to take into consideration the opinions of the physicians, who are, ultimately, the final authority on what treatments and prescriptions are appropriate to each situation.

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Going straight to the emergency room seems like the most prudent thing to do in case of a health issue.  It could be bleeding during pregnancy or a tingling sensation on the right side of the body or something else.

Why do these emergency visits leave several patients with a deep sense of regret for the rest of their lives?

Studies show that hundreds of patients fall prey to wrong tests and surgeries each day at hospitals around the United States.  A surgery or tests are performed on the wrong patient due to mistaken identity or a surgery is performed on the wrong body part.

Let’s take the example of Kerry, who noticed bleeding when she was in the early months of pregnancy and arrived at an emergency room to get herself checked.  Soon after, a nurse took her for a CT scan.  Kerry was apprehensive and asked the nurse if that needs to be done, and the nurse replied that those were the doctor’s orders and a CT scan of the abdomen is needed.

After the scan, the emergency room physician along with a couple of radiologists came into the room and told her that they made a mistake.  That the CT scan was to be done on another patient with the same first name.

Although, no large studies have been done on the side effects of a CT scan on a pregnant woman, experts say that a fetus, when exposed to radiation, can sometimes develop mental and physical growth abnormalities.

Doctors also explained to Kerry that the baby could suffer mental retardation, low IQ or even growth problems because of exposure to radiation.

Wrong Surgeries Performed In Hospitals

This may sound unusual for many of you but this is certainly not a rare case.  It happens all the time at hospitals.

According to the Joint Commission accrediting the hospitals, procedures on the wrong patient, wrong side and the wrong site happen more than 40 times each week in hospitals in the United States.

Several wrong surgeries take place in the hospitals here. One such case involved a child who went in for an eye surgery and the surgeons took out the tonsils because of a confusion with another patient.  Another child underwent a cleft palate surgery on the wrong side of the mouth. Yet another patient who went in for neurosurgery had holes drilled on the wrong side of the head.  Towards controlling this menace, state regulators in some states brought out a rule that video cameras be installed in all operating rooms at the hospital.

Does This Make The Hospitals Bad?

While experts are of the opinion that such errors don’t make the hospital bad and people continue to flock there for surgeries; from the common man’s perspective, it can be quite scary.

Kerry says that doctors were very nice and apologetic after the incident. The pregnant emergency room doctor cried and apologized to her and her husband. They even asked what flowers she liked and offered free hospital cafeteria coupons.  It is all understandable and the doctors may even be forgiven, until something goes drastically wrong.

Kerry’s baby, at 3 months of age, had a head circumference in the 73^rd percentile, and at 1 year, it was in the fifth percentile. If the percentile does not say in the same range, it is considered to be a bad thing for the child’s growth.

A crying Kerry said that she expected doctors to know what they were doing and that she didn’t know anything.

Keeping Yourself Safe From Hospital Mistakes

But not knowing anything cannot be an excuse any longer, because ultimately it is the patients who suffer throughout their lives. This gives us all the more reason to be better informed and knowledgeable about hospital procedures and not to think that doctors can do no wrong.  It is our bodies and our lives after all!

Patient empowerment is very important and is a step forward to ensure things don’t go wrong.

Here are some tips given by experts to keep yourself from falling victim:

Give Your Name, DOB and Surgery - Give your name, date of birth and the surgery you are there in the hospital for, to every doctor, technician or nurse who takes care of you, even when you enter the surgery room.

Get Them To Check Your ID – You must understand the hospital staff have to confirm the patient’s identity in at least two ways.  One is to check your ID and the other is to ask for your name and date of birth. Insist on them checking your ID bracelet.

Find Out What Procedure You Are Having And On Which Side? – Even if you are in the hospital for a right eye surgery and the nurse confirms that, you must remember that the nurse will not go into the operation theater with you. Insist on confirming the procedure and the side of the body before they give you anesthesia and cut the wrong part.

Marking The Surgical Site - Many hospitals have implemented the method of asking their patients to mark the site where they would be having the surgery. You can insist on marking the surgical site with the surgeon present in the operating room and not just in front of the nurse or someone else.

Be Very Clear About Your Personal Details – Many a time, patients tend to keep quiet even if the nurse or doctor pronounce the name wrong or give a wrong last name, thinking that they just made a mistake.  You cannot afford to do that.  Correct them immediately and make sure they correct it in the chart, if it’s written wrong.

The general attitude of people is that getting to a hospital is their sole responsibility as doctors take care of the rest. This is just not the case and you will have to keep your eyes and ears open at all times during your hospital stay; especially when you’re undergoing a surgery or some diagnostic tests.

Being aware that hospitals do go wrong and surgeons do make huge “irreparable” mistakes can help you avoid becoming one of the victims of hospital mistakes.

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The number of C-Sections in the United States have been on the rise since the 1990s.  While the main reason could be health-related, such as older women having babies, obesity etc.; there are many who opt for a C-section just to avoid the discomfort associated with a normal delivery.

For many of us, the thought of pushing a baby through a small opening can appear daunting, if not terrifying. The fact that C-section is also considered as a routine these days and not a major abdominal surgery also pushes women towards getting one.

According to recent data; today, one out of three babies is born via C-section and this rate is expected to go up even more.

This procedure can be a lifesaver in many cases when the mother or baby is in distress or because of other factors that can make a vaginal delivery hazardous.  They could also be performed because the baby looks big, the mother is past her due date or because the labor is not progressing well.  But experts say that only about 5 percent of C-sections are emergencies. Around 3 percent of them are completely a matter of choice for which there is no medical reason.

Critics are of the opinion that there is no reason for so many healthy pregnancies ending up in surgery. They say that there are a certain number of C-sections that are inevitable for the sake of the mother or baby’s health, but there are too many unnecessary C-sections being performed in the United States.

Risks of C-Section

A C-section involves cutting through the skin, tissue and the uterine wall to extract the baby and placenta, and then sewing up the incision. The recovery period can be a minimum of four weeks when compared to just a few days for vaginal deliveries.

Apart from the long recovery period, there is also the risk of infection, blood clots, blood loss and some fatal complications too.

Here are a few things every pregnant woman needs to know:

What Makes C-Sections So Hot?

Technology Picks Up Potential Health Risks – C-sections are hot because the advancement of technology is picking up potential health risks and problems easily.  Ultrasounds in the third-trimester can now predict the size of the baby and monitors can check the baby’s heart rate during labor and delivery.  They help obstetricians rely heavily on technology to see potential problems during pregnancy, labor and delivery. If they see a problem, then they consider it safer to do a Cesarean.

According to a leading obstetrician, “Continuous recording of the fetal heart rate came into being in the 1970s and is likely a big contributor to the increase in C-sections.  Doctors today are more inclined to do a C-section if there is anything of concern.”

Older Mothers – Women having children late in life are more at risk for labor and delivery related problems.  They also have a difficult time pushing the baby out. Apart from this, many older women undergo fertility treatments to get pregnant and this usually leads to twins, triplets etc., which calls for a surgical delivery.

Assistant professor of Obstetrics and gynecology at the Drexel University College of Medicine says, “It’s very hard to predict how the second baby will come out.”  He said that complicated positions are very common with multiple babies.   In such a scenario, a C-section is looked at as a safer alternative for the health of the fetus and has become the default method of delivering such babies, irrespective of their position.

With more and more women opting to have children late in life, the number of C-sections is on the rise.

Overweight Mothers – Pregnant women with a body mass index of 30 or more are more likely to need a C-section. Unfortunately, almost 35 percent of the women above the age of 20 today fit into this category, according to the American Heart Association.

Doctors say that heavier women tend to have bigger babies, making it difficult to push them out normally.  The excessive fatty tissue can also prevent the baby from moving smoothly through the birth canal.  Another factor to consider is the fact that overweight women usually have other associated problems like high blood pressure, which might lead to induction of labor and C-section.

Induction Of Labor Leads To C-Sections – Many women are of the opinion that induction of labor is almost the same as natural labor.  But that is not true.  Induction of labor with drugs, manual stripping of the membranes connecting the amniotic sac to the uterine walls or even rupturing the amniotic sac to cause contractions does not always help with labor. Most of these women end up having a C-section.

The First C-Section Leads To A Second – The general belief is that once you have a C-section, all subsequent deliveries have to be through C-sections too. Previously, there used to be VBAC (vaginal birth after a Cesarean) but now it is rarely performed, after a study in 1999 indicated that there is a small chance that the scar could give way, which poses a fatal risk to both the mother and baby.  After that study, it was recommended that doctors can only perform VBACs in hospitals where emergency C-sections are performed. But because of the liability concerns and the fear that something could go wrong, they are hardly performed anymore.

However, it is important to realize that multiple C-sections are not completely safe either.  There is the risk of hardening of the scar tissue and the risk of the placenta implanting abnormally.

Conclusion

As we all know, a normal vaginal delivery is the best option and mothers who have no health problems are advised by doctors to tolerate the discomfort associated with a normal delivery, keeping in mind the future health problems that a C-section can lead to.

If a pregnant woman is unfortunate enough to have complications or when a normal delivery turns bad, doctors say that a C-section is the safest option.

It is not easy to compare a C-section to a normal delivery, because there are numerous factors that are taken into consideration.  Every pregnant woman wants a health baby, and towards this end, it is important to talk to your obstetrician at all times to understand the options.  The better informed you are, the safer the delivery will be, irrespective of whether it is a normal vaginal delivery or a C-section.

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Mastectomy is the worst nightmare a woman can have.  As if being diagnosed with cancer is not enough, removal of the breast plays havoc with a woman’s self-esteem.

Each year more than 250,000 women in America face breast cancer and many of them undergo breast reconstructive surgery. Why breast reconstruction?

There are a number of reasons women go for reconstruction of their breasts:

-         Because they cannot imagine their lives with a flat chest in place of a breast

-         To regain their original breast shape

-         To avoid having to use a padding inside the bra for the rest of their lives

Many women say that reconstruction helps with their self-esteem and body image. But the problem is that most women get this surgery done without even understanding what their options are or what they are getting into.

With a whole lot of choices to make, there is a growing concern that women are not being properly informed about all the treatment options available to them.  Most women are usually presented with “Okay, this is what we are going to do,” by the doctors.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ report, almost 70 percent of breast cancer patients who are eligible for breast reconstruction procedures were not informed of the options for reconstruction that are available to them.

Some say that it is because of doctors’ hectic schedules that prevent them from discussing and explaining things to their patients. It may also so happen that the doctor does not mention a particular procedure to the patient, if he or she is not competent or trained in performing that surgery.

Whatever the reasons, every woman has the right to know the options. Let’s see what they are according to experts.

Planning Well In Advance

If you are planning on having reconstructive surgery, you will first have to discuss in-depth with your surgeon, who is experienced in breast reconstruction, even before you get a mastectomy done.  Planning well in advance will give you a chance to understand your options and allows the surgical team also to plan the best treatment for you.

Breast cancer experts recommend that the patient should try and slow down the process. According to a breast cancer expert at the University of Michigan Health System, “The median time from breast cancer diagnosis to surgery is two weeks. That’s way too fast. Breast cancer is not a medical emergency.  You have a period of time, certainly weeks, to make decisions.”  He tells patients to weight all their options and also get second opinions. He says, “Make no decisions in the first visit to the doctor.  Let me repeat: Make no decisions in the first visit.”

Decisions For Reconstructive Surgery

There are several factors that need to be considered before having reconstructive surgery.

-         Overall health

-         The stage of the breast cancer

-         The size of the natural breast

-         The amount of chest tissue available.  Thin women may not have enough tissue to make flap grafts.

-         Whether reconstruction needs to be done on one or both breasts

-         The type of reconstructive surgery

-         The size of the reconstructed breast

Types Of Surgery

-         Mastectomy: This means complete removal of the breast.

-         Lumpectomy/Segmental Mastectomy/Breast Conservation Surgery: Removing only part of the breast tissue.

Immediate or Delayed

-         Immediate breast reconstruction is done immediately after the mastectomy.

-         Delayed breast reconstruction means that it is rebuilt later.

The advantage of getting it done immediately is that the chest tissues are not damaged by radiation therapy or scarring and the resultant new breast looks better. It also means easier surgery. However, delayed reconstruction may be a good idea for women who will need radiation to that area even after the mastectomy. This is because radiation therapy given after the surgery can lead to problems.

Haste Is Waste

Experts say that sometimes the journey from diagnosis to surgery is initiated in haste by the patients themselves. According to one expert, “Many women have the reaction, ‘Get this cancer out before it kills me!’ They don’t realize it’s been there for years.

Even women doctors patients are said to make this mistake when they are affected with breast cancer.  A doctor cites an example of a lady doctor who had breast cancer. “”I had two patients who were physicians and they jumped the queue and had their mastectomies very quickly,” she remembers.”They didn’t wait for all the tests to come back, and when they did, the tests showed these women could have kept their breasts, but they had that operating room booked.”

Sometimes patients take the advice of only one surgeon. They don’t bother meeting the medical oncologist to check if chemotherapy is required and go by what their surgeon says, when in fact it is the medical oncologist that specializes in chemotherapy and not the surgeon.

Conclusion

American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ advises breast cancer patients to seek out information objectively with a clear head.  They are asked to read books, surf the internet, look at studies, and discuss with surgeons with high credentials. If you don’t need intensive surgeries, then you are asked to go for procedures that are less invasive and less painful.  Make the right choices by investigating all the options.  Even if your doctor doesn’t give you the options, you will have to find out and discuss with him or find a new surgeon who is open to discussions.

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The most popular way of increasing the size of breasts is implants; either silicon-gel or saline-filled. But there are many risks associated with these implants and some of them as identified by the FDA are, leaking or hardening of the implants; rippling, sagging or lack of sensation of the breasts.

Although, silicon implants are approved by the FDA, many women have noticed a variety of complications including fibromyalgia with pain in the muscles, joints and tendons. Some women even complained about arthritis, nausea, muscle cramps and chronic fatigue.

Now, there is a reason to rejoice for people who have been looking to enhance their assets. There may no longer be a need to use artificial implants and take health risks. This enlargement can be done naturally with a new stem cell therapy developed by scientists. This procedure kills two birds at the same time; that of increasing the breast size and reducing the stomach fat.

What is the connection between stomach fat and breasts?

How about cutting some of that excess fat and storing in your assets?

That’s what this is all about. The process involves isolating the excess fat cells on the stomach or thighs, after which concentrated stem cells are mixed with another batch of fat, and then injected into the breast.

For those of you who wish to know what exactly stem cells are – they are undifferentiated cells with a unique potential to produce any type of cell in the body. We know that our body is made up of a huge number of cells. All the cells in the body with their various functions originate from a single cell – the embryo. These cells are named “stem cells” because all other cells in the body “stem” from these cells. This means they have the super power to self-repair damaged parts and even create a whole organism. Stem cell research is creating waves in medicine. Researchers strongly believe that these super cells can revolutionize medicine, enabling doctors to grow new organs, cure several diseases and repair tissues in the body.

Using these wonderful stem cells for this procedure sounds wonderful, and most women should not object to something like this, as this will give their assets a completely natural look, unlike the artificial implants that mostly tend to look artificial.

The only drawback with this process is that it takes time, as many as several months, to achieve the desired shape and size. Scientists say that since this is still in the initial stages, an increase of one cup size is possible, and in the future, the size can be larger with improvement in technique.

The research team is led by Professor Kefah Mokbel, who is a breast surgeon at the London Breast Institute. According to him, “Implants are a foreign body. They are associated with long-term complications and require replacement. They can also leak and cause scarring. This (new technique) is a very exciting advance in breast surgery. The breasts (treated with stem cells) feel more natural because this tissue has the same softness as the rest of the breast.”

Currently, ten breast cancer patients who underwent mastectomies are part of a trial that has started in Britain. This technique is also being tested on healthy women undergoing this procedure purely for cosmetic reasons.

Researchers feel that the stem cell treatment may work only for small increases in size, and they will have to conduct further research to see if it is possible for larger augmentations. Mokbel said, “We are optimistic we can easily achieve an increase of one cup size. We can’t say yet if we can achieve more. That may depend on the stem cells we can harvest.”

This is not a new procedure as it has been used in Japan for around six years to treat cancer patients. The British team is confident that after it conducts about 30 procedures, the London Breast Institute will also be able to offer this to private patients, and the cost may be anywhere around 6,500 pounds.

The results in cancer patients have been impressive. Although, there is a lot of excitement in the research circles about the use of this procedure in healthy women, several medical bodies have opined that it is not advisable to offer this to healthy women until several more trials on cancer patients show that it is completely safe and effective.

It is also felt that while breast cancer patients attend regular follow-ups without fail, young women who get this done for cosmetic reasons are less likely to do so, making it possible to miss out on any complications.

Image: Shawn Kelly

It is nothing short of a miracle for blind people to regain their vision and see again, and this may become a reality sooner than you think, thanks to a microchip the size of a small grain – or should we say, thanks to the researchers who spend years on research just to make this happen.

Researchers are exploring the possibility of using microchips to bring back sight for the blind. They are closer to creating a retinal implant that will have the capability of bypassing all the damaged cells and offer visual input directly to the brain.

This eye-implant is meant for people with retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration, which are the two main causes of blindness.  This retinal implant takes complete control of the damaged retinal cells by providing electrical stimulation to the nerve cells that normally carry visual input to the brain from the retina.

This microchip may not be able to restore vision to normalcy but it would help blind people navigate a room or walk down a sidewalk more easily.  Even a blurry picture of their loved one or the ability to maneuver on their own, is a blessing for a completely blind person.

This research is being conducted at MIT by a team consisting of scientists, ophthalmologists and engineers. According to one of the researchers, Shawn Kelly, “Anything that could help them see a little better and let them identify objects and move around a room would be an enormous help.”

Image: Shawn Kelly (Side View)

Patients who received the microchip implant will have to wear special glasses fitted with a tiny camera that sends images to the microchip implanted in the eyeball. The glasses also come with a coil that transmits power to the coils surrounding the eyeball.  When the microchip receives visual information, it activates electrodes that stimulate all the optical nerve cells near the retina that carry signals to the brain, totally bypassing all the damaged layers of the retina.

The one thing that perplexed researchers was to understand the kind of vision this direct electrical stimulation can produce. This research team started to work on answering this question about ten years ago, by fixing electrodes to the retinas of six blind patients for many hours.  On activation of the electrodes, patients could see several “drops of blood” or “clouds,” and this number corresponded exactly with the number of electrodes that were stimulated.  Without this electrical stimulation, the six patients could see nothing.  These tests proved to be a turning point in the research and helped researchers understand that stimulation of the retina does actually produce some vision in blind patients.

This is what motivated researchers to go ahead and create an implantable chip.  Their ultimate goal is to create a chip that would work for at least 10 years.

The road was full of hurdles and researchers had to face several issues trying to come up with an implant and procedure that does not harm the eye.  Initially, they attached the electrodes directly to the top of the retina from inside the eye, but they soon realized that this carried the risk of damaging the delicate retina.  Now, this implant is attached to the outside of the eye instead of inside, and the electrodes are implanted behind the retina.  This location reduces retinal tearing and also does not need extensive invasive surgery.

Human tests have not begun yet and this has only been tested on Yucatan miniature pigs, which have the same sized eyeballs as humans.  They have been implanted in these pigs for about 10 months successfully, and now researchers are ready for human clinical trials.

The prototype is scheduled to be tested in blind patients within the next three years.

This latest quest of MIT will be of interest to thousands of people like Rob Spence, who is a Canadian film maker.  He has been looking to put a tiny wireless video camera into his empty right eye socket, in order to see the world around him.  A retinal implant may just prove to be the perfect solution for him and many others like him.

The most important thing for blind people is to be able to recognize faces.  Kelly says, “If they can recognize faces of people in a room, that brings them into the social environment as opposed to sitting there waiting for someone to talk to them.”  Hopefully, millions of blind people will be able to very soon.

When visiting a new place, the first thing tourists do is to sample the delightful cuisine or check out the tourist attractions. But not so in Tunisia! The first whiff of Tunisian air gives rise to waves of anticipation – of a new look – of a flawless face or body.

La Marsa is where most head the moment their flight touches the Tunisian soil. The unspoken excitement can be felt from the bandaged or red faces walking around the place.

This is not just any tourism – it is medical tourism at its best. The hub of cosmetic surgery, as Tunisia is now known by the world, is making many dreams come true. Medical tourism is on the increase and in the past decade, has taken Tunisia from the low obscurity to the high of visibility. The booming cosmetic or corrective surgery industry in Tunisia is a result of efficient physicians, effective procedures and affordable prices. This place promises everything you could have always wanted – a flat tummy, a beautiful nose, voluptuous breasts and everything else that can make you flawless.

While surgeons in established countries command a price that every plain Jane cannot afford; Tunisian doctors, in an attempt to showcase their talent to the world, are currently offering their services at prices that are affordable by almost everyone.

People from far off regions like Asia throng the place. Tourists from major European countries like the UK and France make a beeline to Tunisia, as they have the advantage of being located close and don’t have to worry about procuring a visa beforehand. In spite of being a developing country, the amenities available are on par with the other major Western countries. Tunisia boasts of a world-class health care system that is as good as any of the best in the world, with highly-trained physicians and well-equipped clinics/hospitals.

For people visiting the place for a cosmetic surgery, their quest for beauty begins in a wonderful manner, setting the mood for things to come. They begin to feel beautiful even before a cosmetic job is performed on them, through the hospitality meted out by the kind-hearted people of Tunisia. Even the Mediterranean climate with mildly cool winters plays its part in patient recuperation, in total contrast to the biting cold or unbearable heat in their countries. Most patients prefer staying back and enjoying the serene beauty of the Tunisian beaches, delectable food and exotic culture while the healing is taking place under the bandages and until they no longer look or feel sore.

Going deeper into the price structure of cosmetic surgery in Tunisia – while a facelift costs between 4,000 to 6,000 pounds in UK, in Tunisia it would cost less than half of that amount. Breast enhancement surgeries are staggeringly expensive in the UK, at around 15,000 pounds but in this cosmetic capital, they cost no more than 5,000 pounds, which includes airfare and accommodation in a 5-star hotel. All you need is 2,000 pounds for a liposuction. Earlier, surgeons in Brussels were famous for their most efficient facelifts, but now the focus has shifted to Tunisia.

With so much happening on the Tunisian front, it is no wonder it is emerging as the cosmetic capital of the world. The Tunisian surgeons receive their training abroad, most of them in France, and their efficiency in performing complicated cosmetic surgeries is well-known and highly talked about. The best quality of medical service is offered on a platter at unthinkable prices.

Right now all eyes are on Tunisia and medical tourism is thriving – at its peak – performing and living up to expectations. An estimated $2 billion was spent by about 6.5 million tourists towards plastic surgery.

Who knows how long the surgeons will continue to provide these skilled services at such low prices? Get that nose job done in Tunisia before Tunisia decides it has proven enough to the world and starts looking at getting their due in terms of increased prices. Already surgeons are said to be showing an inclination to raise their prices as they have now built an avalanche of loyal patients from around the world, who vouch for the quality of service and would continue to visit Tunisia to get themselves fixed.