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What is Plastic surgery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Plastic surgery is a general term for operative manual and instrumental treatment which is performed for functional or aesthetic reasons. The word "plastic" derives from the Greek plastikos meaning to mould or to shape; its use here is not connected with modern plastics.

The principal areas of plastic surgery include two broad fields.

* Reconstructive surgery, including microsurgery, focuses on undoing or masking the destructive effects of trauma, surgery or disease. Reconstructive surgery may include closing defects with flaps - that is by moving tissue from other parts of the body.
* Cosmetic (or aesthetic) surgery is most often performed in order to change features the patient finds unflattering. In a few cases, however, there may be medical reasons (for example, breast reduction when orthopedic problems are present).

History

The history of cosmetic surgery spans back to the ancient world. The Romans were able to perform simple techniques such as repairing damaged ears. In the Middle Ages, there were techniques to restore a severed nose by attaching the arm to the face and letting a blood supply form, then removing the arm from the new nose. Nevertheless, it was not until modern times that its use became commonplace.

Physicians in ancient India were utilizing skin grafts for reconstructive work as early as 800 B.C. However, it didn't move very quickly so it wasn't really until the 19th and 20th centuries that it was actually performed. The U.S.'s first plastic surgeon was Dr. John Peter Mettauer. He performed the first cleft palate operation in 1827 with instruments that he designed himself.
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Reconstructive surgery

Reconstructive surgical techniques were developed rapidly in the period after the First World War when patients with survivable but disfiguring injuries required new approaches. The English military hospitals of the period trained surgeons from the world over in these new techniques. These surgeons then returned to the Americas, the Pacific and to Europe to propagate their advances. The main advances were with flap surgery�moving tissue from one location to another with an intact blood supply.

Ultimately, plastic surgeons have championed the use of microsurgical techniques to transfer remote tissue. They have for the past several decades been able to connect blood vessels that may be as small as 1-2mm in diameter to reperfuse the transferred tissue, thereby allowing coverage of a soft tissue defect when no local tissue is available.

Common cases of reconstructive surgery are breast reconstruction for women who have had a mastectomy, facial- and contracture surgery for burn victims, closing skin- or mucosa defects after removal of tumors in the head and neck region.

Sex reassignment surgery for transsexual people is another example of reconstructive surgery.

Foreskin restoration for men who have undergone circumcision is sometimes performed using reconstructive surgery.

There is a definite gray area between reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. For instance a "bat ear" correction is not considered cosmetic surgery, even though having prominent ears is not a debilitating or dangerous condition.