Recent statistics released by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) indicate that 14.6 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures, including both minimally-invasive and surgical, were performed in the United States in 2012, up 5 percent since 2011. In addition, 5.6 million reconstructive plastic surgery procedures were performed last year, up 1 percent.

Cosmetic minimally-invasive procedures increased 6 percent, with more than 13 million procedures in 2012. “For the third consecutive year, the overall growth in cosmetic surgery continues to be driven by a significant rise in minimally-invasive procedures, while surgical procedures remain relatively stable,” said ASPS President Gregory Evans, MD.

2012 marked the highest number of botulinum toxin type A (Botox®, Dysport®) injections performed to date. Other facial rejuvenation procedures like soft tissue fillers, laser skin resurfacing and microdermabrasion also saw sizable increases.

The top five minimally-invasive procedures were:

• Botulinum toxin type A (6.1 million procedures, up 8 percent)
• Soft tissue fillers (2 million procedures, up 5 percent)
• Chemical peel (1.1 million procedures, up 2 percent)
• Laser hair removal (1.1 million procedures, up 4 percent)
• Microdermabrasion (974,000 procedures, up 8 percent)

For the full statistics visit the ASPS website.