In short
- There is no single price because there is no single operation: the same area may need a limited resection or a procedure with flaps.
- 🔑 What moves the quote most is the quantity of material and how far it spreads, and that is not known until there is an imaging scan.
- Reconstruction is a variable in its own right. Restoring volume or covering a defect is not the same as removing.
- ⚠️ A complete quote includes the recovery, not just theatre: follow-up appointments, dressings and the management of what is foreseeable, starting with a seroma.
- It can be planned in two stages, and that changes the sums too.
- ⚠️ Cheap abroad has a hidden bill. At two Irish hospitals, treating the complications of people who had surgery abroad cost €5,486 per patient.
- Insurance cover depends on the policy, and there are specific questions worth asking beforehand.
Searching for the price of this and finding a fixed figure should make you suspicious, not reassured. Because there is no operation called “biopolymer removal”: there are very different resections depending on how much material there is, where it is and what is needed to leave the area in good shape.
This page explains what the quote depends on, what it has to include to be a real quote and why a figure given without seeing you is not a figure: it is bait.
If you are comparing with having surgery outside Spain, that is in having surgery in Spain or travelling.
What the price depends on
Five factors, in order of how much they really weigh.
1. How much material there is and how far it reaches. This is the main one, and it determines practically everything else: the length of the surgery, the approach and whether covering or restoring is needed. It is not an estimate that can be made by ear: the MRI says so, and it is explained in the diagnosis page.
2. The area. A buttock, a breast and a face are not equivalent problems or equivalent operations. Each has its own page: buttocks, breast and face and lips.
3. Whether reconstruction is needed, and of what kind. Removal is half the surgery. Restoring volume with fat, covering with a flap or placing an implant are different procedures with different costs. It is in the reconstruction page.
4. The length of surgery and the hospital stay. To put it in scale with a published reference: in a series of 199 patients operated on for gluteal and lumbar removal with a flap technique, the mean duration was 270 minutes — four and a half hours. Theatre, anaesthesia and the team are counted by time.
5. Whether it is planned in one stage or two. With active inflammation or compromised tissue, the right thing may be to stabilise first and reconstruct later. Those are two surgical procedures, and it is better to know from the start than to discover it halfway through.
The price at ICPM
The price depends on the case: it is assessed in the consulting room and it is final after the MRI. That is not an evasion, it is the real order of things. Until there is an imaging scan there is no knowing how much material there is, in what plane it sits or whether reconstruction will be needed, and those three things move the quote from top to bottom. A “from” price published without that only serves to make the real figure arrive later and come as a surprise.
So there are two moments: at the consultation you are assessed and given an idea, and after the MRI the quote is closed and put in writing. If someone gives you a firm price over the phone, without seeing you and without imaging, they are not being more transparent: they are guessing.
What can be said in advance, and what really makes two quotes comparable, is what ours contains:
| Included in the quote | |
|---|---|
| The surgery | The surgical team, theatre and anaesthesia. |
| The overnight stay | This surgery is not a day case: you are admitted. |
| A year of follow-up | With its appointments, not a courtesy check-up. |
| Compression garment and Epifoam | The post-operative garments and compression materials. |
A year of follow-up included is not a commercial detail: it is the period in which whatever can appear does appear — a seroma arrives around the first month — and the time needed to know whether the scar needs anything more. A quote that ends on the day of discharge is not covering the part of this surgery in which things happen.
A reminder of our own rule: the price does not go in the “In short” block, not even on a page whose subject is the price.
What a serious quote has to include
This part is useful whatever quote you are reading, ours or another clinic’s. The items that tend to be missing are always the same, and they are the ones that reappear later as a bill:
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Surgical team fees | Including everyone who operates on you, not just the lead surgeon. |
| Theatre and anaesthesia | They are counted by time, and this surgery is long. |
| Materials | Drains, compression garments, dressings. |
| Nights of hospital stay | And what happens if more are needed than planned. |
| Follow-up appointments and dressings | How many are included and until when. |
| ⚠️ Management of the foreseeable complications | The most frequent is a seroma, which appears on average at 31 days, and may need aspiration or drainage. If it is not listed, ask what it would cost. |
| Revisions or second stages | What is included and what is billed separately. |
The highlighted row is the one that discriminates most. In a series of 35 patients a seroma appeared in 40% of cases, and in one of 199 patients 29.1% needed drains. It is not a remote possibility: it is what you would expect in a substantial proportion of cases. A quote that does not allow for it is not being realistic.
Insurance
It is a constant question and the honest answer starts by acknowledging that it depends on the policy.
There is a reasonable underlying argument: removing a biopolymer is not cosmetic surgery, it is the treatment of a problem caused by a foreign material in the body, with documented symptoms and complications. But many policies expressly exclude anything arising from previous cosmetic procedures, and that is what has to be checked case by case.
Specific questions worth putting to your insurer in writing:
- Does it cover the removal of injected material when it causes symptoms or complications?
- Is there an exclusion for a previous cosmetic procedure, and how is it worded?
- Does it cover the imaging needed for the diagnosis?
- And the subsequent reconstruction, if it is needed because of the defect removal leaves?
- What documentation do they need in order to assess it?
We do not work with insurers. We are not on any insurer’s panel, so if your policy covers any of this, the route would be reimbursement and the person who has to tell you whether they accept it is your insurer, not us. The questions above are still the ones worth putting to them in writing.
Finance
There are finance options, with terms of up to five years. The specific conditions — provider, interest, instalment and paperwork — depend on the amount and on your circumstances, and are gone through at the consultation with the quote already settled; there is no point simulating them on a figure that does not yet exist.
⚠️ Spreading it over five years does not make the surgery cheaper: it spreads it out. A comfortable instalment can make a bad quote look affordable, and that is exactly the trap the table above guards against. Compare quotes by what they include, and only then look at the instalment.
And what cheap costs
It belongs here and not on another page, because it is when comparing quotes that you need it.
- At two Irish university hospitals, 33 patients were treated over two years for complications after having surgery abroad. Twenty-seven operations were needed, with a mean stay of four days and a cost of €5,486 per patient.
- At a US centre, 44 patients with complications after travelling for surgery generated a mean hospital bill of around $34,750 per patient, with an average of 1.75 emergency department visits and five days of admission.
These are not Spanish figures and they cannot be transferred as they stand. What they describe is something else: that the initial saving and the total cost are not the same sum, above all in surgery whose most frequent complication appears once you are back home. It is set out in having surgery in Spain or travelling.
Book an appointment
You can book your own appointment. Pick the day and time from the free slots in the diary, in a panel that opens right here, without leaving this page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does biopolymer removal cost?
It depends above all on how much material there is and how far it reaches, and that is not known without an imaging scan. Any figure given over the phone, without seeing you and without imaging, is at best an approximation.
Why do you not put a fixed price on the website?
Because there is no single operation. The same area may need a limited resection or a procedure with flaps and reconstruction, and those are very different quotes.
Does insurance cover it?
It depends on the policy. Removing injected material that is causing symptoms is not cosmetic surgery, but many policies exclude anything arising from previous cosmetic procedures. It is worth asking in writing beforehand.
Is reconstruction included in the price?
It is a variable in its own right and it has to be spelled out expressly in the quote, because restoring volume or covering a defect is not the same as removing.
And if a seroma appears? Is that charged separately?
It is the question most worth asking, because a seroma is the most frequent complication — 40% in one series — and appears on average at 31 days. Ask whether its management is included and until when.
Abroad they will do it for far less. Is it not worth it?
In the short term the saving is real, and that is why many people do it. What does not appear in that quote is the cost of a complication treated far from whoever operated on you.
Is there a charge for the initial consultation?
It is one of the things worth asking from the outset, along with whether it is deducted from the procedure.
Can I pay in instalments?
It is a reasonable question and it depends on what each clinic offers.
Sources
- Osorio E, Ramírez B, Herrera O, Suarez C, Ciro C, Varela A. Three-flap Technique: Comprehensive Approach for Biopolymer Removal in the Gluteal and Lumbar Regions. Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open. 2026;14:e7870. A retrospective cohort of 199 patients; the mean surgical duration was 270 minutes and 29.1% required a drain. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42495057/
- Eusse Llanos JC, Posada López S. Paramedian open approach for gluteal biopolymers removal: a case series of 35 patients. JPRAS Open. 2025;45. A series of 35 patients; the most frequent complication was seroma (40%), with a mean time to formation of 31 days. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40837208/
- Chee SY, Sheil F, Keane A, Feeley A, Martin-Smith JD, Cahill KC. Impact of aesthetic surgery performed abroad on the Irish healthcare system. J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg. 2024;98:339-341. Thirty-three patients treated at two Irish university hospitals for complications of cosmetic surgical tourism between 2021 and 2023; 27 operations were carried out, with a mean hospital stay of four days and a cost per patient of €5,486. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39332160/
- Maini RS, Hall J. Aesthetic Surgery Tourism: The Real Cost of Discount Plastic Surgery. Aesthetic Plast Surg. 2026;50:6485-6491. Forty-four patients treated for complications after cosmetic surgical tourism between 2021 and 2024; an average of 1.75 emergency department visits and a mean stay of 5 days; mean hospital cost of $34,752.91 per patient. Level of evidence V. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42298159/
Book your consultation
If what you need is a figure in order to decide, the shortest route is also genuinely the shortest: an assessment with the imaging in front of us. With that we know which operation is needed, and only then can a number be put on it that means anything.
And when you have it, compare it against the table on this page: what separates one quote from another is usually not the figure, but what is inside it.
Clinical confirmation by the surgeon
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Last reviewed: 6 September 2026. This content is for information only and does not replace an individual assessment by a healthcare professional.
