Plastic Surgery Confidential

Reconstructive Plastic Surgery is performed to correct severe functional impairments caused by:

• burns
• traumatic injuries, such as facial bone fractures
• congenital abnormalities, such as cleft lip, or cleft palate
• removal of cancers or tumors, such as a mastectomy

Common reconstructive surgical procedures are: breast reconstruction for women who have had a mastectomy, cleft lip and palate surgery, contracture surgery for burn survivors (Stress ulcers (Curling’s ulcer); one of the complication of severe burns.[2] [3]) , and closing skin and mucosa defects after removal of tumors in the head and neck region.

Plastic surgeons developed the use of microsurgery to transfer tissue for coverage of a defect when no local tissue is available. Tissue flaps comprised of skin, muscle, bone, fat or a combination, may be removed from the body, moved to another site on the body and reconnected to a blood supply by suturing arteries and veins as small as 1-2 mm in diameter.