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Home › Guides › How to check a surgeon in Costa Rica

How to check a surgeon in Costa Rica

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Doctors in Costa Rica are registered with the Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos de Costa Rica, the national medical college. The Colegio keeps a public directory. You can search it from home in the US or Canada in a few minutes, before you pay anyone a deposit. This guide shows you how.

ClinicTrue is not a clinic and gives no medical advice. The checks below are paperwork checks. Whether a procedure is right for you is a decision for you and the surgeon.

Where the registry is

Go to medicos.cr. The site menu has a link called "Buscador Medico". It opens the Colegio's directory at medicoscr.hulilabs.com/es/search. The search box reads "Buscá por doctor, especialidad o código", so you can search by name, by specialty or by the doctor's registration code. The site is in Spanish. A browser translator is enough.

CRHoy, a Costa Rican news site, published a step-by-step guide in January 2026. Type the doctor's full name or professional code, open the profile, and read the registered specialties, the contact details and the "condición de incorporación activa", which means whether the registration is active. You can also filter the directory by specialty to see everyone registered under it.

What a listing shows

Each result card shows:

  • The doctor's name.
  • The title "Médico y Cirujano", which the directory gives every registered doctor.
  • A code in the form "cod. MED" followed by a number. This is the registration number. Ask the surgeon for theirs and compare.
  • The status, "Activo" for an active registration.
  • The registered specialty or specialties, plus clinic and contact details where the doctor has added them.

The specialty to look for is "Cirugía Plástica, Reconstructiva y Estética". That is the name the Colegio uses in its professional profile for the specialty. In the directory some surgeons appear under a shorter label, "Cirugía Plástica y Reconstructiva". If you see neither next to the name, the directory does not list that doctor as a plastic surgeon, whatever the clinic website says.

The Colegio's professional profile for the specialty, ratified by its general assembly in November 2021, sets out what the specialist does. When an earlier version was published in La Gaceta in February 2019, CRHoy reported that it bars general practitioners from invasive aesthetic surgery.

The pool is small

In January 2026, Ronald Pino, president of the national association of plastic surgeons (Amecpre), told El Observador that 55 doctors in Costa Rica are certified in plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery, and 49 of them belong to the association. The same week CRHoy pulled the list from the Colegio's registry and counted 64 active surgeons with the specialty. The two figures were counted in different ways, so read them as "between 55 and 64". Either way the pool is small. A list of sixty names is something you can check in full.

Amecpre publishes its member list at amecpre.com/miembros. Each entry shows the surgeon's Colegio code (the MED number), so you can cross-check it against the registry.

Ask which hospital

Ask the surgeon, in writing, where the operation will take place and whether they operate there regularly. Costa Rica has a specific habilitación standard for facilities that provide plastic surgery, made official by Executive Decree 39187-S in 2015, and the Ministry of Health applies it. The Colegio's own advice, reported by El Observador in January 2026, is to confirm the procedure will happen in a facility authorized by the Ministry of Health. Once the surgeon names a hospital, you can call the hospital and ask whether the surgeon has privileges there. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons suggests the same question for surgeons anywhere: "Do you have hospital privileges to perform this procedure? If so, at which hospitals?"

Questions to ask before you book

Keep it short and get the answers by email so you have them in writing.

  1. What is your Colegio de Médicos code?
  2. Which specialty is registered under your name?
  3. Where will the surgery take place, and do you operate there regularly?
  4. Who gives the anesthesia, and are they a registered anesthesiologist?
  5. How many of this exact procedure have you done in the last year?
  6. What is the plan if there is a complication while I am still in Costa Rica? And after I fly home?
  7. Will I get my operative report, and implant details if any, in writing before I leave?

The Colegio's recommendations, reported by El Observador, add three more. Ask for a full medical evaluation with the risks explained in writing. Insist on clear written information about the procedure and possible complications. Be wary of offers that lead with a low price.

If something does not add up, the Colegio has a complaints office (Fiscalía) reachable through medicos.cr. The site menu also lists a "Registro de Infractores", a register of sanctioned members.

What ClinicTrue shows, and what it does not

ClinicTrue shows two things. First, the prices clinics publish on their own websites, with a link to the page where we found them. Second, what the public registry says about a surgeon: the name, the registration code and the specialty as listed.

ClinicTrue does not verify surgeons, rank them, or recommend one over another. We do not check outcomes, complication rates or facility permits. We do not know whether a price is a good deal for you. A registry entry tells you a doctor is registered with a given specialty. It tells you nothing about skill or results. Use it as the first filter, not the last word.

Sources

Last updated Oct 2, 2026.

ClinicTrue is not a clinic and gives no medical advice. This guide is general information, not advice about your care. Ask your surgeon and your own doctor.

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