The National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) is concerned about hyaluronic acid injections carried out without authorization.
This act of aesthetic medicine used in particular to reduce wrinkles can indeed degenerate into serious side effects.
They absolutely must be carried out by doctors, the drug agency warned on Monday.
“These practices carried out by non-doctors are dangerous and prohibited”, warns in a press release the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM).
Hyaluronic acid is a gel that is used in particular by aesthetic doctors to reduce wrinkles.
But these injections are also practiced illegally by unauthorized persons, a phenomenon which has recently gained momentum.
The AFP had notably collected at the beginning of the year a series of testimonies from patients who had suffered the disastrous consequences of badly performed acts, such as local abscesses or generalized infections.
Serious infections, necroses…
"These adverse effects, which can go as far as serious infections or necrosis of the skin, are mainly linked to non-compliant practices, such as non-compliance with hygiene conditions or poorly performed injection", emphasizes the 'ANSM.
Complications can also be caused by the dubious quality of the acid used, the agency recalling that it is essential to be able to ensure the traceability of the product.
Forty reports
In terms of figures, the ANSM has reported, since the beginning of the year, about forty reports of side effects linked to the injection of hyaluronic acid by unauthorized persons.
"Doctors know how to manage immediate adverse effects such as an allergy to the injected product - anaphylactic shock -, necrosis or ischemia - blocked blood vessel -, by appropriate medical treatment", recalls the ANSM.
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