Fundamentals of Risk Assessment in Aesthetic Surgery Patients

Plastic and reconstructive surgery is as old as the origin of civilization itself. In the year 2021, a total of 12,840,688 surgical aesthetic procedures and 17,598,888 nonsurgical procedures were performed worldwide, without quantifying reconstructive surgeries. With a progressive annual increase in surgical procedures, coupled with an increase in the aging population and comorbidities of our patients, assessments of the risks involved and the level of frailty of our patients have been established as one of the first steps in performing safe surgery with successful results. Every plastic surgeon must have the knowledge and the necessary tools to individually know the risk of complications associated with the procedure to be performed and, even more importantly, the systemic complications based on the individualized risk. This chapter will attempt to provide a concise overview of the plastic surgeon's tools to provide an adequate risk assessment.