Insights From the Supreme Court Decisions: Undesirable Consequences After Minimally Invasive Cosmetic Interventions in Türkiye

ABSTRACT

Background

With the increasing demand for cosmetic procedures in recent years, the implementation of some of these procedures by unauthorized persons has led to undesirable results and subsequently to the creation of a large number of case files.

Aims

In this study, it is aimed to retrospectively evaluate the decision texts of the Turkish Supreme Court regarding minimally invasive cosmetic dermatology procedures and to evaluate the reasons and results of the applications reaching the high court in these procedures.

Methods

The Supreme Court's decisions in cases filed due to undesirable consequences caused by minimally invasive cosmetic interventions were scanned using the Supreme Court of Appeals' online database from 2013 to 2023.

Results

The majority of the procedures addressed by the lawsuits are carried out in beauty salons; laser epilation is the procedure that is conducted most frequently, and burns are the most prevalent complication (87.8%, 85.7%, and 77.6%, respectively). As an adverse event, 94.7% ( n = 36) of burns occurred in beauty centers. Thirteen (26.5%) of the cases in our analysis were carried out by an unauthorized person. When laser epilation and other procedures are considered as two separate categories, in applications due to adverse events of laser epilation, 28 (66.7%) cases were concluded in favor of the defendant.

Conclusions

Complications, especially burns, that occur after laser epilation performed by unauthorized persons in beauty salons constitute a serious caseload, and there seems to be a need for better control mechanisms to reduce this burden.