Dr. Saad Barhoum
If you’re thinking about plastic surgery, start by getting to know your surgeon.
I’ll give you what you need to do it. You won’t find adjectives about me here. You’ll find numbers, dates, and registrations.
What you can check before you read any further
| Physician | Universidad del Cauca, 1992 |
| Plastic surgeon | Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, 2003 |
| Practicing in Cali | 23 years, completed in February 2026 |
| Provider registration | REPS 7600105110-01 |
| Training program | Serviço «Linneu Mattos Silveira», PUC-SP |
The first thing you see isn’t a promise: it’s a list of things you can verify without asking me.
And one clarification, so it doesn’t make you doubt anything if you check: on my 1992 diploma my surname appears as “Faray,” and everywhere else as “Farai.” It’s the same person and the same national ID number; it comes from my Italian citizenship. I’m telling you before you find it yourself.
Have a specific question and don't know where to start?
Bronze at the ISAPS Olympiad 2025, Singapore
Third place in oral presentations on breast surgery, with a retrospective cohort study on my autologous explant technique.
And what matters more than the medal: the technique comes from a school of surgery. I trained at the Serviço «Linneu Mattos Silveira» of PUC São Paulo, and my specialist diploma is signed by Hamilton Gonella. This isn’t a surgeon in Cali who came up with something on his own.
Three technical decisions you can ask any surgeon about
They’re not three things I say about myself. They’re three questions you can ask anyone you’re considering — including me.
I do an ultrasound of the abdominal wall before a tummy tuck. To see whether there’s a hernia above or below the belly button, and how much muscle separation needs to be closed. Finding a hernia with a scalpel in my hand isn’t the same as going in knowing it’s there.
I don’t inject fat into the muscle, and I check by watching. In buttock augmentation with your own fat, I place it above the muscle, with an ultrasound in the operating room to see where the cannula is going. It’s the direct answer to the number-one fear about this surgery.
I say out loud what can’t be achieved. Something will always remain. A scar, an asymmetry, a limit. I’d rather tell you beforehand.
All three can be asked. None of them requires you to trust me to check.
Ask me any of the three, or your own.
What I do
You don’t need to know which surgery you need.
That’s my job.
Here’s what I do, and under each one, who it’s for.
Breast explant surgery — removing the implants and rebuilding the shape with your own tissue, in the same surgery. It’s where my published work is.
Biopolymer removal — this isn’t cosmetic surgery: it’s reconstructive.
Breast augmentation and lift — if you’re missing volume, it’s an augmentation; if the breast has dropped, it’s a lift. Many cases are both.
Breast implant exchange — at ten years, it’s time to check them, not to have surgery. The first step is an ultrasound.
Liposculpture — it’s not for losing weight: it’s for the fat that won’t go away with diet or the gym.
Buttocks — “buttock surgery” is four different operations, not one.
Tummy tuck — it’s surgery of the abdominal wall, not of fat.
Blepharoplasty — excess skin, drooping eyelids, and bags: upper, lower, or all four.
Otoplasty — prominent ears are worth fixing in childhood. Not for looks: for school.
Facelift — it repositions the muscles of the face and neck and removes the skin left over with the years. It can be partial or full.
Gynecomastia — yes, I operate on men too: when the chest grows because of the gland, and almost always fat as well.
Before surgery, ask four things
Before choosing a surgery, there’s something more important than the price or the results you see on social media: your safety. These are the four questions you need to ask whoever is going to operate on you. Here they are, with my answers.
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Who’s going to operate on you?
A certified plastic surgeon with experience in the procedure you’re looking for. My degrees and registrations can be checked one by one: you’ll find them here.
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Where?
In a licensed clinic or hospital, with proper safety standards and equipment. I operate in a fourth-level clinic —the highest level of care in Colombia’s health system—, with inpatient care, emergency, and intensive care. I don’t do any procedure in my office.
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Who gives the anesthesia?
A specialist anesthesiologist who assesses your health and stays with you throughout the procedure. Mine is Dr. Salim, my brother: we’ve operated together since 2003.
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What evaluation do you need beforehand?
An in-person consultation and your lab tests, which are what make it possible to plan the surgery safely and around you. If you get them done in your home country, they must be no more than 15 days old on the day of surgery.
Want to ask me all four?
If you’re coming from abroad
Having surgery in Cali doesn’t change the surgery, but it does change the planning: the flights, how many days you stay, and who sees you once you’re back home.
And you’re not coming to an improvised destination. Between January and August 2026, Cali was the second city in Colombia for foreign patients: 5,889, according to Colombia’s migration authority, Migración Colombia (El Colombiano, in Spanish).
Before you write to me
I won’t ask you to arrive with your mind made up, or with the name of a surgery.
What does help is arriving knowing what bothers you and what you’d like to achieve. And telling me your whole story: previous surgeries, medications —including vitamins and supplements—, medical history, and any earlier tests you have.
When it comes to your health, no information is too small.
The next step
You don’t need to have made a decision to write to me.
Tell me what’s going on and I’ll tell you what I see. And if the answer is that surgery isn’t right for you, I’ll tell you that too.
Pie
Offices in Cali and Pereira, Colombia · Provider registration REPS 7600105110-01 (Cali) · REPS 6600103553 (Pereira)
Want to check? Look me up in the directory of the Colombian Society of Plastic Surgery. That’s the route that works: RETHUS is the official registry, but it can’t be searched by name, so it won’t help you.