Liposuction on the rise as obesity grows in Qatar

LANI ROSE R DIZON

DOHA IT may sound unbelievable but it is true that the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) every year treats more than 10,000 plastic surgery cases, and most of the patients seeking the surgeons’ intervention happen to be adults between the ages of 25 and 45, an HMC official has said.

Speaking to Qatar Tribune on the sidelines of the 1st Fit4Forum Exhibition & Conference which opened at St Regis Hotel on Saturday, Dr Habib al Basti, a senior consultant plastic surgeon at the HMC, president of the Arab-Plast and Gulf-Plast and chairman of the conference, said that the demand for plastic surgery has been growing in Qatar.

He said the trend was prevelant not only among females, but among young males as well.

He added, “So high is the demand for the procedure that we have nine teams working in the surgical department of the HMC’s Rumaillah Hospital, and the average waiting time for patients is about a year and a half.

“With obesity becoming a leading problem in the country, liposuction is one of the most common procedures we conduct.

Rhinoplasty, a nose job, is much popular among younger patients, while many women who have given birth to more than two children go for the abdominoplasty,” he said.

Basti pointed out that most of the child patients undergo the treatment due to congenital anomalies.

“And, for most elderly patients, plastic surgery is not a beauty option but a clinical procedure,” the HMC plastic surgeon stated, adding, that older patients usually go for mastectomy, removal of tumors, and other surgical interventions due to fractures suffered in a fall.

“This conference aims to highlight the latest advances made in plastic surgery. And during the process we also want to educate the public and raise their awareness about this surgery,” al Basti pointed out.

The Fit4Forum Exhibition & Conference is organised by Joud, a division of Qatar Information & Marketing (QIM) and is supported by the HMC in collaboration with the Pan Arab Association for Burns & Plastic Surgery and the GCC Association of Plastic Surgeons.

The three-day event runs parallel to the Doha Inside-Out Body Care Exhibition which was inaugurated by al Basti, Heart Hospital Executive Director Mahmoud Saleh al Raisi and Mohammed al Noimi Chief of Staff to the managing director and chief of communications at HMC.

The event also coincides with the 13th Pan-Arab (ARAB-PLAST) Conference, the 9th GCC (GULF-PLAST) Conference, and 3rd Qatar International Conference of Plastic Surgeons which will be officially inaugurated on Sunday.

The Doha Inside-Out Body Care Exhibition features as many as 26 exhibitors showcasing the latest modern methods and technologies in plastic surgery, cosmetics, beauty care and fitness facilities.

Slimming procedures offered by the various exhibitors is one of the key attractions of the event. GerminMED, one of the exhibitors, brings to Qatar for the first time the ‘formoline’ slimming pill, which, he claims, has been the number one slimming pill in Germany for the past seven years.

“Formoline helps to achieve the daily calorie reduction required for successful weight loss. It has been proven to lower the body weight up to 4.2kg a month,” said Bashar Dibo, a medical representative at GerminMED.