Surgery loses out to medicines - The world cosmetic skin treatment market will experience growth of between 5-10% this year in a market worth $7bn in 2008. Cosmetic surgery itself, however, will decline by 10-20% this year, according to figures supplied by Imcas, the sector's global monitoring organisation, which confirms a trend that began three years ago. Surgery is losing out to medical treatments, which are expected to increase by 13% by 2012. At the top of the three most popular medical practices in the US in terms of innovation and the volume of activity is botulic toxin or Botox. This is followed by hyaluronic acid and laser hair removal. In Europe, the market is worth $1.9bn with wrinkle filling at the top but Botox rising sharply (+80% last year). At the top of the 6 most popular treatments in the European cosmetic surgery market in 2008 were: 1) wrinkle injections ($276 million); 2) Botox ($239 million); 3) creams ($236 million); 4) breast implants ($171 million); 5) multi-laser platforms ($170 million) and 6) cosmetic remodelling ($150 million). (I.L./transl.rh)