Plastic surgery

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

Related Topics:
Breast reconstruction - Mastectomy - Mucosa

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

Related Topics:
Sex reassignment surgery - Transsexual

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

Related Topics:
Foreskin restoration - Circumcision

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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.

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