Background: The overwhelming interest in economically cost-effective treatments had led to an increase in the development of cosmetic facial injections. Concomitantly, complications have been also on the increasing trend. This article aimed to investigate the social-economic impact caused by infection after cosmetic facial injection.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted between January 2014 and December 2019. Information including demographics, location of the original injection site, treatments, economic loss, and time away from work associated with complications was documented. Patients were asked to complete 2 FACE-Q domains 4 weeks after the first presentation, including quality of life and patient experience.
Results: Complete data were available for 12 patients. All patients were female; the mean age was 32.66 years (range, 26-49 years). The mean therapeutic cost of atypical mycobacterium was 18170.58 USD. The mean time away from work was 51.25 days (range, 21-103 days). The mean cost of time away from work was 400.80 USD (range, 164.23-805.50 USD). From FACE-Q, patients reported a decreased quality of social life, including social function (38.83 ± 12.10), psychological distress (48.67 ± 11.01), and early-life impact (39.92 ± 10.15). Patients also reported low satisfaction with their decision to undergo the cosmetic facial injection.
Conclusions: Infection after cosmetic facial injection comes at a considerable social-economic impact on patients. Patients who responded in this study were extremely unsatisfied with the quality of life following the infection.
Keywords: cosmetic techniques; economics; quality of life; skin infection.
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