COSMETIC SURGERY? ALSO FOR THE FEET THE FILLER AND THE NEW TRENDS COMING FROM THE USA

di Maria Serena Patriarca

How many times have you wanted to show off vain fashionable sandals, following the summer trends launched on the media by fashion bloggers, yet you held back because you didn’t consider the appearance of your feet to be “up to speed”? Well, to be literally beautiful from head to toe, you should know that cosmetic surgery can also intervene on the feet.

Indeed, in recent times the feet are increasingly the object of great attention by aesthetic medicine in the US and Europe. A fundamental part of the body to be treated in all seasons, whose most “extreme” beauty improvement techniques undoubtedly come from the United States even if in Italy they still struggle to “take root” because the same doctors, plastic and orthopedic surgeons put in place guard against all purely aesthetic interventions that could expose a complex but also delicate structure (since our whole body rests on it) such as the foot, to risks not justified by the mere aspiration to the ideal of “beauty”.

The most requested aesthetic treatment (which especially women with thin and bony feet resort to) to plump the back of the foot is the filler. In this case we resort to injections of filling materials right on the back of the foot, to restore tone and fullness and therefore a younger appearance. In particular, resorbable materials are used, especially hyaluronic acid or, alternatively, injections of fat taken from other parts of the body are made (in this case we are talking about lipofilling ) which are biocompatible and consequently safe (the fat, moreover, has no risk of rejection since it is an autologous material).

But let’s go into more detail: after applying an anesthetic on the back of the foot, 4 or 5 micro-injections are made with the needle, distributing the injected substance with a massage. Ice is usually applied at this point to relieve the redness and swelling resulting from the injections, and then you can go back to your usual daily activities. It is obvious that small redness, bruises or swelling may appear in the inoculation area, but you can rest assured that they will pass in a few days; and it must be borne in mind that the skin surface will also be irregular for about a couple of days. Absorbable fillers generally last between 7 and 9 months, after which new treatments will be needed.

If, on the other hand, you choose to use your own fat as a filler, the intervention involves two phases, with an average duration of about 30 minutes. First, under local anesthesia, small incisions are made in the area from which the fat is removed (such as the hips, for example) and cannulas are inserted that suck up excess fat. In the second phase, the final one, small sutures are applied, which do not create visible scars. The removed fat (a few grams are enough, even just 30, at most 50), treated with a specific machine, will be reinserted with small injections on the back of the foot, just like using hyaluronic acid. The fat is partially reabsorbed, so further retouching may be required after a few months.