San Diego — Suneva Medical, an aesthetics company based here, has acquired a new product line, including worldwide rights to Refissa (tretinoin 0.05 percent), from Spear Pharmaceuticals.

The acquisition is expected to be a significant source of revenue growth, the San Diego Business Journal reports. Suneva’s dermatological product line already includes dermal filler Artefill (polymethylmethacrylate), and ReGenica, an anti-aging cream. Suneva also signed licensing agreements with Histogen for aesthetic skincare products earlier this year.

The Business Journal quotes Suneva CEO Nicholas Teti as saying, “It’s an excellent package of products to bring in right now.”

Suneva is expected to add new positions in marketing and sales.

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London — Healthcare regulators in the U.K. were criticized in a recent government review of the Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) breast implant scandal.

The review follows a worldwide scandal in which hundreds of thousands of women, including nearly 50,000 in Britain, received unsuitable silicone breast implants from French manufacturer PIP, Reuters reports.

The review said that although the British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) followed sound advice, it was advised to gather evidence from a larger group of sources in the future, especially from clinicians.

It was noted in the review that PIP committed deliberate fraud, which the MHRA was not responsible for, but the agency needs to identify areas where “improvements can and should be made in the future,” health minister Earl Howe said in the review.

"(The MHRA) needs to be at the forefront of using more sophisticated and rich sources of data to determine if there are problems with a device. It must have the ability to review routinely the sum total of the information about specific higher-risk devices, to ensure that the need for any further action is identified promptly," Lord Howe said.

MHRA CEO Kent Woods responded to the review in a news release, noting that the agency sympathizes with patients affected by the PIP breast implant scandal.

“We will act quickly to implement the recommendations and use the lessons learned from this episode to improve the regulatory system for medical devices in the U.K. and Europe,” Professor Woods said.

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Seattle — Consumers are increasingly interested in noninvasive fat reduction procedures, according a report on industry trends by Realself.com.

The site, one of the largest plastic surgery review and community websites, states in its review that procedures such as CoolSculpting (Zeltiq) is expected to become one of the most popular trends in cosmetic surgery. The procedure, in which fat cells are killed off with controlled low temperatures, has seen a 36 percent increase in Internet searches over the past 12 months.

According to the report, patients are increasingly interested in this procedure because it takes as little as an hour to do the in-office procedure, and post-procedure downtime is minimal.

The report also notes a recent study that found patient satisfaction was reported to be an average of 15 percent higher when procedures were performed by board-certified physicians. The study examined self-reported cases reviewed on the realself.com website. According to the report, “tens of thousands” of cases were examined. Some of the highest satisfaction rates included patients who received injectables, such as Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA, Allergan) and Juvéderm (cross-linked hyaluronic acid, Allergan), who reported 25 percent greater satisfaction rates with board-certified providers when compared to all providers.

Patients undergoing surgical procedures also preferred board-certified providers. Liposuction patients, for example, reported 20 percent higher satisfaction rates when treated by board-certified physicians.

“For many cosmetic surgery procedures, consumers are reporting much better results from care delivered by board-certified physicians specialized in cosmetic surgery, and this should play a factor in their decision making process when choosing a provider,” the report concluded.

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Cleveland — Forehead lift using an endoscopic decompression approach may be more effective for treating frontal migraine headaches than the transpalpebral approach, according to a recent study.

The study, led by researchers with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, involved reviewing the charts of 253 patients who underwent surgery to treat frontal migraines. The patients had either endoscopic nerve decompression or transpalpebral nerve decompression.

Of those in the endoscopic group, 89 percent reported a successful outcome, which was at least a 50 percent decrease in migraine frequency, intensity or duration one year after surgery. In the transpalpebral group, 79 percent of patients had successful outcomes.

“Endoscopic nerve decompression was found to be more successful at reducing or eliminating frontal migraine headaches than transpalpebral nerve decompression and should be selected as the first choice whenever it is anatomically feasible,” the study authors wrote.

The study was published in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

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Cambridge, England — A British university has added a new degree course aimed at providing doctors with skills and experience in the field of cosmetic surgery.

The course, starting in September 2012 at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, is open to all accredited plastic surgeons based in the U.K.; overseas plastic surgeons will be able to apply starting in 2013, BBC News reports. The university says it hopes the new qualification will ensure quality care and also deter Britons from going abroad for surgery.

The new course was also prompted by the recent scandal over faulty breast implants made by now-defunct French firm Poly Implant Prosthese, the UK Press Association reports.

Professor James Frame, F.R.C.S., a surgeon at the university who will help teach the new practice-based plastic surgery course, says some plastic surgeons still lack expertise. He also says some surgeons don’t have enough experience to carry out cosmetic work because cosmetic surgery is normally done in private practice and not the National Health Service, BBC News reports.

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons has called the cosmetic surgery program “not necessary for fully qualified plastic surgeons,” according to BBC News. Some plastic surgeons also say the course is unnecessary, noting that all qualified plastic surgeons in the U.K. must complete training approved by the Royal College of Surgeons before they may work for the NHS.

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Boston — More than half of all medical malpractice claims requiring defense cost leads to litigation, but of those that go to court, most are decided in favor of the defending physicians, according to results of a recent study.

Investigators from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed data from across the U.S. for the years 2002 through 2005. They found more than 10,000 malpractice claims that required defense costs, Medscape Medical News reports.

Nearly 55 percent of the medical malpractice cases across all specialties were dismissed by the court. Dismissal rates were highest for cases brought against internists and medicine-based subspecialists and lowest for cases against pathologists.

Across all specialties, only 4.5 percent of claims were decided by a trial verdict, which favored defendants nearly 80 percent of the time.

"The substantial portion of litigated claims that are not dismissed in court and the length of time required to resolve litigated claims more generally may help explain why malpractice claims undergoing litigation are an important source of concern to physicians," the report concluded.

The study was published online in Archives of Internal Medicine.

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San Diego — Combining abdominoplasty with hysterectomy is safe and effective, according to a poster presentation at the annual clinical meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Investigators from Florida International University, Miami, analyzed 65 patients with a mean age of 46 who underwent combined abdominoplasty and hysterectomy between 1995 and 2011, HealthDay News reports. Procedure duration, length of hospital stay and complications were assessed.

Researchers determined the average time of surgery was 210 minutes and the average hospital stay was 3.8 days. There was a 32 percent overall complication rate, which included transfusion, fever, urinary tract infection, atelectasis and wound complications. There were no major complications reported.

"In this the largest case series to date, the results suggest that combined abdominoplasty and hysterectomy is a safe (and) effective way to help patients attain both cosmetic and medically important outcomes in the same surgical procedure," the authors wrote.

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Lyon, France — Patients who undergo bariatric surgery are more likely to report and be diagnosed with problems associated with alcohol consumption, according to a report presented at the 19th European Congress on Obesity.

Study investigators from the Sahlgrenska Center for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research University of Gothenburg, Sweden, analyzed data from 2,010 patients who underwent bariatric surgery between 1987 and 2001, and 2,037 contemporary control subjects, Medscape Medical News reports. Patients with existing alcohol problems were excluded from the study.

Investigators examined long-term changes in alcohol consumption and abuse, with a median follow-up time of 10 years. Patients self-reported alcohol use and any problems with alcohol they might have had.

Previous studies showed a decrease in alcohol consumption for six months after bariatric surgery, typically followed by an increase.

Various bariatric procedures displayed different risks. Gastric bypass had the highest rates of both medium-risk alcohol consumption and alcohol abuse, followed by vertical banded gastroplasty. Patients undergoing gastric banding had similar risk rates as the control group.

Investigators are unclear on what causes the higher rate of alcohol abuse among bariatric patients

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Sao Paulo — Women who undergo abdominal liposuction and don’t follow an exercise regimen may add visceral fat after the procedure, according to a small study.

Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo noted a potential for increased visceral fat surrounding the abdominal organs of patients following abdominal liposuction procedures, Reuters reports.

The study followed 36 female patients of normal weight who had a small amount of superficial abdominal fat removed. All of the study’s participants were sedentary prior to the procedure. Half of the participants were randomly assigned an exercise regimen to start two months after surgery, while the rest maintained their normal lifestyle. The women who remained sedentary averaged a 10 percent increase in visceral fat, investigators found. Women following the exercise program had no such gains.

The reasons for the increase in visceral fat are unclear, but they may have to do with the metabolic activity level of this type of fat or due to the structural effects of liposuction on fat deposits, Reuters reports.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

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Tallahassee, Fla. — Liposuction in Florida became safer recently with the adoption of new regulations and restrictions on where the procedure can be performed.

Gov. Rick Scott signed the new regulations into law in April; they are scheduled to take effect in January 2013. Supporters of the new restrictions include the Florida Society of Plastic Surgeons, the Florida Medical Association and the Florida Board of Medicine.

According to the new rules, all liposuctions that remove more than about two pounds of fat must now take place in regulated offices equipped with lifesaving equipment and a doctor specially trained in lifesaving techniques. Offices will also have to be inspected by the state or undergo accreditation.

Some doctors foresee internists and nonsurgeons giving up the procedure, rather than attempting to meet the new, stricter regulations.

There is also concern that the new regulations will raise the costs of some procedures, but backers of the new law insist safety is the impetus for the law. There have been reports of cases in Florida in which unregulated doctors or medical spas performed liposuction using sedative pills or creams rather than appropriate anesthesia, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery notes that it requires its members to operate in accredited, state-licensed or Medicare-certified facilities.

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