For many years he was recognized as the famous surgeon, until a decade ago media complaints began to fall on him, which later came to justice. Today, Hannibal Lotocki He was sentenced by the Oral Court to 4 years in prison and 5 years of disqualification from practicing medicine, accused of serious injuries. The prosecutor had requested 7 years and 9 months, considering that he had caused these injuries repeatedly: Silvina Luna, Stefania Xipolitakis, Pamela Sosa and Gabriela Trenchithe complainants.
But who is Hannibal Lotocki? In 2014, NOTICIAS published a profile of the controversial surgeon, with details of the cases that led him to be sentenced to Justice.
Research published by NOTICIAS in 2014
The PET tomographic analysis, used to make diagnostic images, usually shows areas with brightness, fluorescence. Brightness, in this case, is not a good thing; demonstrates inflammation, physical damage, accelerated cellular processes. When Diego Lowenstein – Silvina Luna’s primary care physician – saw the PET scan that he ordered for his patient, he could not contain his astonishment: his patient’s tail looked like a Christmas tree. Luna’s buttock surgery showed unexpected consequences. In 2011, the beautician Aníbal Lotocki –responsible for Vicky Xipolitakis’s breasts, Oriana “Oggi” Junco’s tail and Verónica Ojeda’s postpartum liposuction, among other controversial operations– filled it, according to himself, with 500 cubic centimeters of fat from the Moon itself plus a small percentage of polymethylmethacrylate, a chemical used in cosmetic surgery and dentistry – which is manufactured in the country at 400 pesos per syringe – approved by the ANMAT to be used in small quantities, but rejected by one part of the medical community. But on July 24, the former Big Brother model was admitted to the Italian Hospital. “Renal colic” was the first cause that transpired. A day later, Luna spoke on air on “Intruders” from her hospital bed.
He refused to mention Lotocki, at first, only to say his name. He slipped a possible “malpractice”, spoke of “cleaning my body” of “certain toxic substances” and “the negligence of whoever operated on me”. The problem was more serious than it seemed: Luna was discharged on Thursday the 31st, a week later. Her kidneys had been the problem. Through various analyses, Lowenstein was able to determine an increase in calcium in the model’s blood, which led to kidney stones. Also, she detected several granulomas in the process. Luna had started complaining about this a year and a half ago, when she went to see Lowenstein for a series of pains. The Italian’s medical report after discharge reflected this problem: “renal failure”, “hypercalcaemia” and “bilateral ureteral lithiasis” were the terms used. This generates a new controversy: what does an operation based on methacrylate, a little-known chemical, have to do with a series of kidney stones?
In the office at his medical center in Belgrano, Full Esthetic, Lotocki – the doctor who monopolized the celebrity market in Argentine show business – does not tremble as he speaks with NOTICIAS. He looks confident to the extreme, with a stack of silicone breast pads decorating a drawer. He says that he has been operating buttocks for more than twelve years, that in addition to Silvina Luna, he has more than a thousand augmented buttocks to his credit, many of them with this procedure of mixing human fat with a little methacrylate. He says that the substance is legal, that the ANMAT approves it, he even shows medical literature printed in Brazil that endorses it and brochures from the European distributor of the substance. “I went to conferences on the subject in Brazil, a doctor there had more than 400 buttock operations with methacrylate and no problem in seven years. There are always complications, but I’ve never had a problem like this”, he admits. Other medical studies suggest otherwise.
WITNESS CASES. In 2012, a group of nephrologists from Hospital Italiano presented a paper at the National Congress of their specialty. “Hypercalcemia secondary to granulomatous disease caused by methacrylate injection” is its title, with two control cases analyzed. In June of this year, a group of nephrologists also from Argentina, from institutions such as Hospital Fernández and Hospital Alemán, published in an American journal –to later be included in the US National Library of Medicine– a paper with the same title, with other four cases. In them, a possible relationship between methacrylate and kidney problems is suggested. Near Luna there is some relief after discharge: “If this had not been caught in time, Silvina would end up on dialysis with kidney failure,” admits someone who knows her treatment closely. Lotocki did not know these texts until before the scandal exploded: he read them in recent days. However, he unblinkingly defends the substance that leads him to a new public trial: “I respect those who don’t want to use it. And those who don’t want to use it respect me! It is not proven that it affects ”, he affirms.
Several plastic surgeons shot him with thick ammunition. This is not new for Lotocki: several often sit in the living rooms of gossip shows to criticize his practices. Dr. Cristian Pérez Latorre became one of his staunch enemies. “No recognized plastic surgeon is going to place this type of product. Quite the contrary. The only thing that can be placed in the buttock is the gluteal prosthesis itself. Otherwise, you look for an aesthetic solution and you take a disease for life, in this case, hypercalcaemia”, assures Pérez Latorre. Mónica Milito, in charge of the clinic that bears her name, member of the Argentine Medical Association and with studies at Harvard Medical School, affirms: “The substance is approved in a formula of microparticles suspended in gel, which is used in very small amounts in dentistry and in cosmetic surgery for small defects, such as wrinkles. I don’t use it, I don’t like it, it’s a foreign body and it can cause complications. That it is approved by the ANMAT does not mean that it is good and safe. I know a lot of complications”.
Now, does Silvina Luna only have methacrylate? Or is there something potentially more harmful? Luis Ripetta, a plastic surgeon, has the same doubt: “I am convinced that there is a third substance. There are patients who do not have enough fat to fill. You can’t reach those volumes with the fat of a thin woman.” The team that treated Luna suspects the same thing: that it would not be just methacrylate, but a mixture with some other substance. To find out this, the Italian Hospital ordered a biopsy of the material in her tail. When Lotocki finds out about this, her face changes. If there is a third material, she categorically denies it: “If they suspect it, they shouldn’t say so until the biopsy,” she says.
MY FRIEND THE DOCTOR. There is something peculiar in this story. Despite all of his famous surgeries, Lotocki is not a specialized plastic surgeon. “I never introduced myself like this,” he cuts off. The credentials he wields for his work, with the lives of his patients on the line, are even more peculiar: “I am a medical surgeon from the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, with a bachelor’s degree, which enables me to operate, I have always done so. saying. I did a specialty in cosmetic surgery, concurrences, internships. I took an exam at the International Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. It is a title that although it is approved in certain places in Europe, the United States, in Argentina it is not. Lotocki, a 44-year-old native of Misiones, also faced worse things than Silvina Luna’s health crisis. In 2007, one of his patients, 21-year-old Romina Vega, died shortly after liposuction. “I was dismissed, there was no element that indicated malpractice,” he says. That the media river sounds is bad for his business: “Whenever there is a bolonqui, people stop calling”, he says. However, his famous patients do not betray him.
There were tremors of faith. Vicky Xipolitakis She showed her concern before surgery because of the doctor’s rare credentials, only to be ecstatic with the results. Moria Casán, they say in the diva’s environment, she came to Lotocki last year through the doctor’s ex-partner, the media star Pamela Sosa, for a “facial antiage shock”. She today she refuses to talk about Lotocki to NEWS. “Everything is fine with Aníbal, he is divine,” they say near Casán. Annalisa Santi, for example, pays for her aesthetic treatments at Full Esthetic with her mother’s credit card. “He is a great person,” says the hot ex-student from the UCA. Why do they choose it, then? That the surgeon would operate for free in exchange for press, for posters, is a myth in the show business. But several figures admit under their breath: “he gives you discounts. What some would charge you 30 thousand, he charges you 10,000”. The doctor himself admits it: “Yes, there are attentions. But they all pay.
Oggi-Oriana Junco is one of Lotocki’s masterpieces: the transgender’s megabust and tail bear his signature, just like a liposculpture. On his tail there is also methacrylate. Junco knows it. He says that he trusts Lotocki, who is constantly checking up on him. But the Luna affair affects him. “There is no other to operate your tail. He sculpts you like a Barbie. I’m going to have a biopsy at the Trinidad Sanatorium to see what I have. Aníbal told me what he was going to stuff my tail with. Thank God I have nothing.” Suddenly, she was a little more worried.
by RN
