Dr Leo McCafferty said people were confused about plastic surgery

The hit show, about two plastic surgeons who face murky ethical issues, is "an abomination", according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

The society's president-elect Dr Rod Rohrich said: "There's no realism in it at all, from beginning to end."

Nip/Tuck, on the FX cable network, is about the two men's personal crises - rather than a reflection of the profession as a whole, its creators say.

After just five episodes, the main characters have been seen accepting money from a Columbian drug lord to change his appearance and losing an instrument inside a patient.

Dr Rohrich said: "I think about 20 patients have talked to me about how despicable it was and how deplorable - but of course, they watched."

Helping victims

He was sent an advance script but wanted nothing to do with the show, he said.

And Dr Leo McCafferty, chairman of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery's public education committee, said there was confusion among the public about what plastic surgeons did.

"I think there is the tendency to think all we do is stretch skin," he said.

"People generally don't associate us with the burn victim or accident victim in the middle of the night."

'Worst behaviours'

But the show's creator Ryan Murphy said its critics were taking themselves too seriously.

"The whole show is about two guys who are turning 40 and having mid-life crises and are doing absolutely the worst behaviours," he said.

"They are men before they are doctors."