As one of the fastest growing and most searched cosmetic surgeries, the Brazilian butt lift is also one of the deadliest — and Florida lawmakers are taking action.
Before the end of the 2024 legislative session, both houses of the Florida Legislature passed corresponding bills aimed at giving the Department of Health enhanced enforcement powers over practices that perform certain liposuction or buttock fat grafting procedures. All it needs now is approval from Florida Governor Ron DeSandis.
The procedure is known in surgical cycles as the “deadliest plastic surgery ever” — between 2010 and 2020; 25 people lost their lives after doing a Brazilian butt lift in South Florida alone, more than anywhere else in the country.
However, 2021 was the state’s deadliest year, with eight South Florida women dying of fat embolisms after the surgery.
Often referred to as the plastic surgery capital of the world, the sheer abundance of plastic surgeons in the Miami area creates competitive pricing options that attract people from all over the country for everything from breast augmentation to tummy tucks. But according to Modern AestheticsSouth Florida has become the Brazilian butt lift capital of the United States as women from all over the world flock to the area to undergo this highly sought after procedure.
It is estimated that doctors in Miami-Dade County perform 15,000 to 18,000 Brazilian butt lifts annually at an average cost of between $4,000 and $15,000, depending on the surgeon’s experience level, the type of anesthesia used, and the facility’s fees.
According to American Board of Cosmetic Surgerya Brazilian butt lift is a specialized fat transfer procedure in which excess fat is removed from the hips, abdomen, waist, or thighs with liposuction — and then strategically injected into the buttocks to enhance their shape and size.
But if fat is accidentally injected into blood vessels, it can travel to other parts of the body, leading to a fat embolism. And if the fat travels to vital organs such as the heart, lungs or brain, the patient can die.
Recognizing the risks, in 2017 the Plastic Surgery Education and Research Foundation task force published safety guidelines for buttock lift procedures in Brazil, emphasizing the importance of injecting fat directly under the skin, using an upward injection angle, and using larger fat injection tubes to prevent accidental injection into small blood vessels.
In 2022, the Florida Board of Medicine issued an emergency rule that limited buttock lift operations in Brazil to three per day per surgeon to prevent fatigue.
And this isn’t the first time the Florida Legislature has taken steps to protect patients undergoing the procedure. The state’s first plastic surgery bill, HB 1471, went into effect on July 1, 2023, mandating that doctors performing buttock fat grafting must use ultrasound guidance to ensure the fat is injected only into the subcutaneous space and not deeper .
