The FINANCIAL — Plastic surgery has become very popular in Georgia. Konstantin Matitashvili, Surgeon and member of Dr. Sasha Team at Caraps Medline Clinic says on average 600 operations will be made in 2011. He told The FINANCIAL about the exclusive surgical operations offered by the clinic including those to treat Nonunion Fracture, Post-mastectomy conditions and Orthognathic surgery offered by the clinic.
“We love our job. Our patients love us. We had great results in 2010 and the coming year will be even more successful,” Matitashvili believes.
“The world practice of classic plastic surgery proves that almost everyone is content after surgery. But there are cases when unpractised surgeons work on an operation, and the expected results are not achieved. Things like that happen quite often. But some patients can find a way to fix the problem if the surgical interference was not critical.
All sorts of incorrect surgical operations can be corrected by professional surgeons. There are cases when a patient’s subjective analysis doesn’t correspond to the objective reality though. A patient’s claims are exaggerated and insufficiently evaluate the achieved result’s effectiveness. These are subjective moments when no surgical, correctional or repeated operations are needed. During such cases patients receive more information in order to make them realize the achieved result and understand that in his/her case achieving a better result is practically impossible. Patients might incorrectly analyze the reality and the opportunities of surgery, in this case only psychological counselling and giving patients more information is the best way of solving this problem.
As a rule satisfied patients are the best advertisement for a clinic. They subsequently attract new clients.
Sharing information raises the number of patients interested in our services.
Unfortunately the potential of reconstructive surgery is not unlimited. There are some conditions where surgery can’t get a maximum result. This includes situations where a patient suffers from congenital diseases or problems like swellings, injuries or defects left after different kinds of treatments. In such cases plastic surgery can achieve its maximum result but this maximum is restricted,” Matitashvili said.
However the potential of plastic surgery nowadays is at a very high level of success. For example face transplantation operations have already been done in the USA, France and many other countries. That means that technically plastic surgery is maximally developed but there are some cases when despite development you are not able to help a patient. In most cases planned operations justify their effects, no matter how difficult the original condition of a patient.
Plastic surgery is very expensive. That is why some patients want to find a clinic abroad and spend less.
Patients think that they can pay less and still get a perfect result, but cheap plastic surgery doesn’t exist. If a plastic surgeon offers an operation for less, that means the clinic does not have enough patients nor has a bad reputation.
At Caraps Medline we offer exclusive operations. An example is the operation to treat Nonunion Fracture which is the failure of fracture fragments to unite or heal. Nonunion is distinguished from healing of a fracture in an improper position (malunion), or healing that is significantly delayed beyond the normal time of union (delayed union). It’s when bone injuries don’t heal, including thigh, large shinbone, shoulder bone and many others, that have already been operated on by different orthopaedic doctors, but the bone has not healed.
Such problems can’t be solved by orthopaedics or traumatologists. There is a danger of the patient becoming disabled. In most cases patients suffering from Nonunion Fracture lose limbs. Such patients often end up being amputated. The treatment that we offer at our clinic can help patients to avoid such a result.
These kinds of operations are expensive throughout the world. They start from 35,000 EUR and can reach 55,000 EUR. It’s even more expensive in Europe and the USA. Surgery lasts up to 12-14 hours. After the rehabilitation a patient can return to his/her previous life.
We are proud that only our clinic is the exclusive provider of this kind of operation in the whole Caucasus region. In Europe just a few clinics offer such treatment. Over the last 5 years we have done 25 such successful operations.
We work together with famous orthopaedic traumatologist Levan Tavberidze, a leading specialist at Gudushauri National Centre.
Among our patients are people from around the world. We even had a patient from Africa.
Breast Reconstruction is another exclusive operation offered by the Dr. Sasha team at Caraps Medline.
It is also one of the most important directions in plastic surgery.
Breast cancer rates are increasing worldwide. Losing a breast changes the body of a woman dramatically causing big psychological stress. Plastic surgery can change the situation. Results are always good or even great.
The patient goes to sleep and wakes up with a beautiful breast.
We can reconstruct a breast totally. In some cases we make a transplantation of abdominal wall tissue. After full rehabilitation the patients look well even in swimsuits or elegant evening dress.
These kinds of operations abroad cost from 20,000 to 30,000 EUR and here at our clinic cost from 15,000 GEL to 17,000 GEL.
Orthognathic surgery is single or double jaw surgery which is performed to reposition the jaws. During orthognathic surgery correct jaw alignment and occlusion, as well as facial harmony is achieved. Dr. Sasha and his team offer patients this type of surgery as well.
When the jaws are moved forwards or backwards, up or down, or rotated, the facial soft tissue in the chin, cheeks, lips and tip of the nose move accordingly. Therefore, once the jaws are correctly positioned a harmony between the facial features is acquired which results in a beautiful profile. In most cases the curing process is intended together with orthodontics. They make special parameters for us after which we begin to work. When girls undergo this operation they become very happy as their appearance changes totally.
There are problems when children are born with the problem of a lack of development of lower jaw, when a child grows up part of the jaw grows and the other remains small and the jaw is moved aside on one side. Some of the clinics or surgeons offer parents to wait until their children become adult before solving the problem, which is a big mistake. 3-5 or six year old children are operated on at our clinic in order not to wait until the deformation develops further, but ensuring they grow up with a correct jaw. We put in special micro distractors which make a jaw symmetrical and correct. So at the age of 16 or 18 the patient has a normal and symmetrical jaw.
Caraps Medline received a grant from U.S. programme Smile Train. This is a large charity organization sponsored by celebrities in the U.S. helping children with the disease of cleft lip and cleft palate.
We are helping children with the problem of cleft lip and cleft palate free of charge. These operations are quite expensive even in governmental clinics.
The problem of cleft lip should also be solved at the youngest age possible. It is better to conduct such operations when the patient is only several month old and not 7-8 years old. A cleft palate closes at 7-8 months in order not to cause speech problems. These types of operations should be done at the right time and we are doing it. Parents should bring their children to us as soon as possible in case of need.
Due to Dr Sasha’s professionalism and that of our team the most demanded operation is the correction of defects of down limbs because this theme is exclusively ours and unfortunately other clinics don’t offer these operations.
Nose correction is one of the most demanded operations at our clinic as well as in the whole Caucasus region.
We show patients beforehand the result which they will get post-surgery.
We don’t bother patients with our own suggestions. We show patients different versions of what kinds of noses will look best on their face shape. After analyzing they choose which shape of nose best fits them and we advise them as professionals which version will be most realistic for them.
Our main advantage is that we don’t influence much, but show a planned result to people and our professionalism proves that a patient will receive the result which they see before being operated on. The rehabilitation process takes two weeks. Adaptation among society is possible after two weeks; swimming and physical exercise is possible after one month.
Operations are done under general anaesthesia, when a patient sleeps and doesn’t feel any pain or blood loss. We try to minimally disturb a patient, using methods that will most efficiently aid them and ensure a patient’s speedy recovery. After our operations the number of further corrections needed is very small. Out of 1,000 patients 4-5 only may need further kinds of correction, due to subjective claims only and not because of any serious problems.
We perform as primary also Secondary Rhinoplasty, so no patients has trouble if they need secondary intervention after some surgeon got incorrect results, they have same possibilities to recover there nose and find the best for his/her face.
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