Dr. Arístides Arellano Huacuja

A tradition since 1971

Dr. Arístides Arellano’s story begins before him. In 1971 his father, Dr. Francisco Arellano Ocampo — a dermatologist and head of service at the IMSS specialty hospital in Puebla — founded the clinic this practice still works in today. It was never just an office: the founder had been publishing research in indexed journals since 1968, including a study of one hundred asthmatic children of the State of Puebla that appeared the very year the clinic opened. Dr. Arístides is the second generation of that craft — trained, quite literally, among consulting rooms and operating theatres.

Father and son even published together: in 1989 they co-authored an article on the surgical treatment of facial mycetoma in the Ibero-Latin-American dermatology journal — the founder from his specialty, dermatology; the son from his, plastic surgery. That division of labour, each in his own field, is still the house rule.

Today that house is the Clínica Dermatológica y Cirugía Estética de Puebla, in the Bellavista neighbourhood: dermatology as the clinic’s service — the founder’s legacy — and plastic surgery as Dr. Arístides’ own practice, with a technology arsenal published in full, device by device. More than five decades on, it is still a family clinic, not a franchise.

Training

He earned his Médico Cirujano (Medical Doctor) degree from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Xochimilco (UAM-X) in 1986 (Professional License 1125959, DGP). He completed his postgraduate specialty in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1987–1989), between the Hospital General de Agudos Dr. Abel Zubizarreta and the Clínica Libertador, under plastic surgeon Dr. Abel Chajchir — one of the international pioneers of fat grafting. The specialty is recognized in México by the Dirección General de Profesiones (Specialty License 0002008). He rounded out his training with endoscopic and medical-laser surgical techniques in Brazil and the United States.

See full credentials & documentation →

The Buenos Aires years: published, indexed research

The Argentine years were not only spent in theatre. As part of Chajchir’s team at the Clínica Libertador, Dr. Arístides took part in the research that helped turn fat injection — now universal in plastic surgery — into a documented technique. The papers remain indexed in PubMed, the database of the United States National Library of Medicine:

• A comparative study on lipoinjection versus other methods (Medicina Cutánea Ibero-Latino-Americana, 1988), signed from the Clínica Libertador.
• “Fat injection” (Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 1990) — the official journal of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS).
• “A new scalp flap for baldness” (Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 1991), on surgical hair restoration.

And the research is not only history: in 2024 he published, as sole author and from this Puebla clinic, a paper on keloid management with continuous-wave and fractionated CO₂ laser (Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology) — thirty-six years after his first indexed article, on the very subject that fills much of his scar and keloid practice today.

The patent: an instrument that detects nerves

In 1999 the United States patent office granted US Patent 5,928,158, which names him as inventor, for a surgical cutting instrument with a nerve-detection sensor: a blade able to warn the surgeon — and, in its scissors variant, to lock itself — when a nerve is near the cutting edge. The assignee of the patent is the company Very Inventive Physicians Inc; he is named as the inventor. There is no indication the instrument was ever manufactured or commercialised. Here is the full record and how to verify it.

Areas of practice

His work spans the two great fields of the specialty:

• Aesthetic surgery — face, body contour and breast surgery.
• Reconstructive surgery — scars, trauma sequelae and reconstruction, the field that completes the specialty’s full name: “plastic and reconstructive”.
• Hair restoration — member of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), with published surgical research on the subject dating back to the Buenos Aires years.

Teaching: laser as a discipline, not a gadget

He has served as professor and coordinator of the Medical-Laser Surgery Diploma at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) — that is, he does not merely use lasers: he has trained physicians in their physics, indications and limits. He is a founding member of the Mexican Academy of Laser Surgery, and that trajectory explains the clinic’s technology arsenal: every device is published with its maker and its real indication.

Professional affiliations

Fellow of the International College of Surgeons; member of plastic, aesthetic and laser surgery societies across the Americas and Europe — including the World Association of Gluteal Surgeons (WAGS) — and a founding member of the Mexican Academy of Laser Surgery.

The third question of every consultation

The first two questions of a consultation are everyone’s: what bothers you, and what can be done. The third is this house’s: should it be done? A career of more than forty years is made, above all, of cases that were declined — volumes that would have compromised a safe plane, operations the anatomy could not sustain, expectations no operating theatre can meet. Trust is verified, not promised: the licences are public, the documents are scanned and open, and the consultation exists to tell you, too, what is not in your interest.

Professional licenses are publicly verifiable in México’s National Registry of Professionals (DGP): professional license 1125959 and specialty license 0002008. Results of any procedure may vary.