DON'T LOSE FACE
wasting. People affected and seeking help talked
with them about treatment options like cosmetic surgery and New-Fill and
their availability here. Bernard Forbes attended
How do you tell a person
with HIV taking treatments? Often by looking at their face.
Sunken cheeks, wafer-thin skin round the temples, a hollow look. It affects
both men and women.
Lipodystrophy (when your distribution of body fats goes haywire) and facial
atrophy is a widespread problem and one that doctors are only beginning
to understand.
page 1 of 5
contents
of issue 76
back
issues
the
gazette
recipes
small
ads
contacting
us
weblinks
HIV i-Base and the Royal Free Hospital Centre for HIV Medicine have recently
been holding meetings on Management of Facial Fat Loss at the Royal Society
of Medicine. At one such meeting, the afternoon was open to patients who
discussed their problems and also what treatments were available - including
the promising results from New-Fill (implants of polylactic acid) that
some have already been trying out (at a cost) here in the UK.
So what treatment is available
and how does it work?
At the open meeting on 24 January, among those who spoke were three people
with facial wasting, a plastic surgeon from the US, and HIV specialists
like The Royal Free's Dr Mike Youle and Dr Camille Aubron-Olivier, who
managed the first New-Fill clinical trial in Paris to address the problem.
It was explained to the group that plastic surgery isn't really an option to fill
