Reconstructive plastic surgery can change patients' lives by correcting or restoring both form and function. Some procedures correct birth defects like cleft lip or cleft palate, while others aim to reconstruct features scarred by tragic accidents and illnesses or disfigured by domestic violence.
After having Mohs surgery to remove skin cancer, you may require post-Mohs reconstructive surgery. This type of reconstructive plastic surgery can performed immediately after any skin cancer lesions are removed using the Mohs surgery technique. Learn more about what happens during post-Mohs reconstructive surgery.
After a battle with skin cancer (including successful surgery to remove the skin cancer, reconstructive surgery is often needed. This is especially true when cancerous lesions have been removed from as visible and important an area as the face. Learn more about facial reconstructive surgery after skin cancer removal.
If you have suffered tissue loss as a result of a traumatic injury, skin cancer excision, or mastectomy, your doctor may recommend a flap technique to be used in your reconstructive surgery. Reconstructive plastic surgery employs many types of skin flaps to replace lost tissue. Learn more about the use of flap techniques in reconstructive surgery.
Tissue expansion is a technique used in reconstructive plastic surgery which enables the body to grow new skin adjacent to an area in need of repair. Tissue expansion can be used in breast reconstruction after mastectomy, or in facial recontructive surgery following almost any type of injury or trauma.
As your guide to plastic surgery, I occasionally get emails from readers asking how and where they can get free plastic surgery. Some have a genuine need for reconstructive surgery, while others are hoping to go on a reality show where their surgery is paid for by the network. This resource list is geared toward the former, and not the latter. There are in fact several charitable organizations wh…
Skin grafts are a staple of reconstructive surgery for trauma survivors, burn victims, and patients who have undergone breast reconstruction or other cancer surgery.
For many women who have undergone mastectomy and breast reconstruction, the process is not complete until after the complete reconstruction of not only the breast mound itself, but of the nipple and areola. A combination of techniques, including grafts, flaps, and micropigmentation, are used to simulate as closely as possible the appearance of the natural breast.
Operation Smile is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children around the world who suffer from cleft lip and/or cleft palate deformities.
Cleft lip and palate are two of the most common birth defects worldwide today. Therefore, surgery to repair a cleft lip and/or cleft palate is one of the most common reconstructive procedures performed by plastic surgeons around the world. Many question the age at which it best to have the reconstructive procedure performed to repair this defect.
Today's post-mastectomy breast reconstruction patient has more surgical options than ever before, with even more medical advances on the horizon. Surgeons make use of breast implants together with improvements in flap techniques, tissue expansion, and other reconstructive methods in order to provide each patient with the most aesthetically pleasing and medically sound results possible.
This About.com video depicts some of the different methods used in reconstructive breast surgery.
Learn how plastic surgeons are giving back. Visit the website for Operation Smile, an organization that provides disadvantaged children in all parts of the world with much-needed reconstructive surgery they would never otherwise be able to afford.
Visit the website for the Cleveland Clinic to learn about the birth defects most commonly corrected by cosmetic surgery.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons provides a primer on what exactly is involved in scar revision surgery, which is one of the most common reconstructive procedures performed worldwide.
