Constantino Mendieta

Constantino Mendieta (born December 6, 1963) is an American plastic surgeon. He has been described by media sources as a pioneer and leading practitioner of the buttock augmentation surgery known as a "Brazilian butt lift."

Early life
Mendieta was born on December 6, 1963, in Los Angeles, California, United States. His interest in plastic surgery arose in Nicaragua, where his uncle was a plastic surgeon.

Education
Mendieta graduated from Creighton University School of Medicine, general surgery at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, and plastic surgery at the University of Miami, Florida. He obtained a Research Scholarship in Aesthetic Surgery at Harvard University, and international experience in Brazil, Scotland, England and France.

Career
In 1987, 1991 and 1993, Mendieta was a volunteer doctor for the American Cancer Society. In 1996 and 1997 he was medical director of Air Ambulance and Flight surgeon. In 1998 he was a fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Mendieta founded 4 Plastic Surgery Aesthetic Beauty Institutes based in Miami, Florida. He was certified by the American Board of Physician Specialties.

Following prominent news coverage of celebrities' buttocks, Mendieta's butt lift practice began to grow dramatically. Buttock augmentation rose from 10 percent of Mendieta's practice in 2005 to 95 percent in 2015. In the wake of negative media publicity for Brazilian butt lifts, Mendieta was a member of a Multi-Society Task Force for Safety in Gluteal Fat Grafting that issued a practice advisory in 2018. Mendieta is also president of Surgeons for Safety, an advocacy group of plastic surgeons that has opposed proposed state legislative restrictions on buttock augmentation surgeries.

Controversies
Mendieta has been the subject of several allegations of medical malpractice related to plastic surgery. In June 2012, a woman sued Mendieta after he had allegedly left the tip of a medical implement in her breast after surgery. The suit was settled out of court.

Popular radio DJ Betty Pino died of an infection in October 2013. According to the Miami-Dade County medical examiner's report, Mendieta performed reconstructive surgery on Pino's buttocks on June 14 to remove hardening silicone implants, and Pino developed infections in the wounds that would not heal. "She was admitted to the hospital with sepsis due to infection of her surgical wounds, and after a period of hospitalization with multiple medical and surgical complications, she died,” said the report. According to the Miami Herald, Mendieta rejected the autopsy's finding and referred to "much misinformation in the report."

In 2020, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Jenelle Butler, who received gluteal implant removal from Mendieta as part of an appearance on The Doctors, had sued Mendieta and the producers of the show, alleging that "[t]he doctor she had originally wanted to perform the surgery, Alberto Gallerani, has testified that Mendieta made several critical errors including failing to view MRI films before the surgery, failing to determine where to make incisions prior to the surgery and cutting too many of Butler’s blood vessels." Mendieta denied the allegations.

Personal life
Mendieta has been the recipient of numerous cosmetic procedures, including corneal tattooing, buttock augmentation, liposuction, facelifts, unsuccessful hair transplantation, and rhinoplasty.