Ethics, Safety, and Patient Management in Cosmetic Surgery Flashcards
7 cards from real ABCS practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Ethics, Safety, and Patient Management in Cosmetic Surgery flashcards as text
A patient with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) requests rhinoplasty. What is the most appropriate action?
Answer: Refer the patient to a mental health professional before considering surgery
BDD is a contraindication to cosmetic surgery; patients should receive psychiatric evaluation and treatment before any surgical consideration.
Which principle of biomedical ethics requires a surgeon to act in the patient's best interest, even when it conflicts with the patient's own wishes?
Answer: Beneficence
Beneficence obligates the physician to promote the patient's well-being, which may at times require counseling against a requested procedure.
Under the ABCS Code of Ethics, advertising that uses before-and-after photos must:
Answer: Both A and C
Ethical advertising requires photos to be of the surgeon's own patients with informed consent AND a disclaimer that individual results vary.
A cosmetic surgeon discovers intraoperatively that the planned procedure is insufficient to achieve the agreed result. The best course of action is to:
Answer: Complete only what was consented to and discuss modifications postoperatively
Performing only what was consented to preserves patient autonomy; material changes require new informed consent obtained preoperatively.
What is the primary purpose of a surgical timeout (Universal Protocol) immediately before a cosmetic procedure?
Answer: To confirm patient identity, procedure, and site before incision
The Universal Protocol timeout is a patient safety checkpoint to prevent wrong-patient, wrong-site, and wrong-procedure errors.
A patient who underwent rhinoplasty is dissatisfied with results. She threatens to post negative reviews unless a revision is performed for free. The surgeon should:
Answer: Address clinical concerns honestly, document the interaction, and not capitulate to coercion
Yielding to extortion undermines professional integrity; the surgeon should respond clinically, document the threat, and seek legal counsel if needed.
Which of the following best describes the 'reasonable patient' standard for informed consent in cosmetic surgery?
Answer: Disclosure of all information a reasonable patient would consider material to their decision
The reasonable patient standard requires disclosing all information a reasonable person in the patient's position would deem significant in deciding whether to consent.