Recent statistics released by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) have highlighted the impact COVID-19 has had on plastic surgery throughout 2020.
The report was sent to approximately 25,000 plastic surgeons in ISAPS database. Data from 1,081 surgeons was compiled for the survey. According to the report, plastic surgery procedures decreased by 10.9% in 2020, with 77.8% of surgeons globally experiencing temporary practice closures during the pandemic. Despite this, non-surgical procedures, primarily dermal fillers and hair removal treatments, continued to increase, but by lower proportions than previous years (5.7% in 2020, compared to 7.6% in 2019).
The most common surgical procedures worldwide remained the same during 2020, with breast augmentation resulting in 16% of all procedures, liposuction 15.1%, eyelid surgery 12.1%, rhinoplasty 8.4% and abdominoplasty 7.6%.
The top five non-surgical procedures also remained consistent with botulinum toxin at 43.2%, hyaluronic acid at 28.1%, hair removal at 12.8%, non-surgical fat reduction at 3.9% and photo rejuvenation at 3.6%. Around 85% of non-surgical procedures were performed on women.
The age distribution for different procedures showed that 19–34-year-olds made up the highest proportion undergoing rhinoplasty (67.9%), whilst 35–50-year-olds accounted for a majority of botulinum toxin procedures (50.2%).
Mr Naveen Cavale, plastic and reconstructive surgeon, said, “The pandemic seems to have seen an all round reduction of procedures around the globe. The fact that the proportion of different procedures has remained the same implies that this is an effect of COVID-19 rather than anything else. Having said that, a lot of ISAPS surgeons have reported an upsurge in facial procedures, perhaps as a result of the so called ‘Zoom-Effect’ of working from home and seeing yourself on screen a lot more. However the ISAPS global figures do not seem to reflect this.”
