Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is the general term for all kinds of surgery which is performed for functional or aesthetic reasons, rather than to heal an illness.
The principal applications for plastic surgery are:
- reconstructive surgery, including microsurgery, which tries to undo or mask the destructive effects of an accident or illness, for instance closing defects with free flaps after oncological resection
- hand surgery, including hand injuries and finger- or hand replantations, rheumatoid surgery and congenital hand surgery
- craniofacial surgery, especially for children with growth disorders of the skull
- cosmetic surgery, which is done purely to change features the patient does not like for personal reasons
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. The most popular operations in cosmetic surgery are probably eyelid surgery, face lifting and liposuction.
There is a definite gray area between plastic and cosmetic surgery. For instance a bat ear correction is not considered cosmetic surgery, however, this is not a debilitating or dangerous condition. Many people take a dim view of cosmetic surgery, as they see it as frivolous. It does at any rate involve some risk (like any operation) and should therefore not be undertaken lightly. Within the US, critics of plastic surgery have noted that it is legal for any doctor (regardless of speciality) to perform plastic surgery; a practice which, critics argue, leads to poorly performed surgery.
