Health & Medicine
Plastic Surgeon Sued After Posting 'Cocaine Nose' Pictures: What's Going On Inside the Nasal Cavity with Ingestion of this Drug?
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Aug 01, 2014 11:14 AM EDT
A lawsuit was filed Tuesday, alleging that plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Walton of Plastic Surgery Chicago violated the privacy of Sabrina Kropp's facial reconstruction surgery from 2004 when he posted pictures of her nose on his website, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Most of us are familiar with the gruesome-looking consequences that can occur when snorting cocaine. But the why and how of what's going on inside the nasal cavity is often not explained.
Science has shown that snorting cocaine--an illicit stimulant--can greatly damage the nasal cavity. However, just how this happens is not so simple. In other words, more than one part of the sympathetic nervous system is damaged.
First off, when a drug user takes in the drug, blood vessels are narrowed throughout the body. This results in an increase in blood pressure, while simultaneously causing a drop in the amount of blood that can easily flow through the vessels at any given time. As this is happening, the tissues in the nasal cavity begin to undergo horrendous changes that can disrupt normal function--irritating the mucous membranes .
For frequent users, they can even develop a perforated septum; a condition that occurs when cocaine use leads to an amount of damage in the septum's cartilage that's sufficient enough to literally form a hole and provide abnormal access between the left and right portions of the nasal cavity.
Since the lawsuit, the photos have been removed from the website. The pictures also blacked out the patient's eyes and did not identify her.
However, the 55-year-old woman is seeking compensation for "great harm" from when the photos were shared on the practice's website at doctorwalton.com.
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First Posted: Aug 01, 2014 11:14 AM EDT
A lawsuit was filed Tuesday, alleging that plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Walton of Plastic Surgery Chicago violated the privacy of Sabrina Kropp's facial reconstruction surgery from 2004 when he posted pictures of her nose on his website, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Most of us are familiar with the gruesome-looking consequences that can occur when snorting cocaine. But the why and how of what's going on inside the nasal cavity is often not explained.
Science has shown that snorting cocaine--an illicit stimulant--can greatly damage the nasal cavity. However, just how this happens is not so simple. In other words, more than one part of the sympathetic nervous system is damaged.
First off, when a drug user takes in the drug, blood vessels are narrowed throughout the body. This results in an increase in blood pressure, while simultaneously causing a drop in the amount of blood that can easily flow through the vessels at any given time. As this is happening, the tissues in the nasal cavity begin to undergo horrendous changes that can disrupt normal function--irritating the mucous membranes .
For frequent users, they can even develop a perforated septum; a condition that occurs when cocaine use leads to an amount of damage in the septum's cartilage that's sufficient enough to literally form a hole and provide abnormal access between the left and right portions of the nasal cavity.
Since the lawsuit, the photos have been removed from the website. The pictures also blacked out the patient's eyes and did not identify her.
However, the 55-year-old woman is seeking compensation for "great harm" from when the photos were shared on the practice's website at doctorwalton.com.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone