Reconstructive Surgery

Wednesday June 21, 2006 ins: Facial Cosmetic Surgery Tag(s):

Whenever we encounter the words “plastic surgery”, “liposuction”, “nose jobs”, “facelift”, “tummy tuck” and other popular plastic surgery procedures readily come to mind.

It is a common notion that whenever people undergo “plastic surgery”, they pay good money to have their noses sculpted, their abdominal fat sucked out or their faces stretched. This notion may have a semblance of truth to it, although it isn’t entirely accurate.

What most people fail to realize is that plastic surgery was designed not only for people who wish to enhance their appearance, like so many Hollywood actors do. Plastic surgery is also for those whose faces were ravaged by wild animals, whose noses were intentionally cut off by extremely abusive spouses, whose skin was damaged by a fire, or simply those who were born with physical deformities.

While liposuction, nose jobs, tummy tucks or any other surgery intended to aesthetically enhance one’s physical appearance fall under the realm of cosmetic surgery, any operation done to repair or correct abnormalities caused by disease, trauma, birth defects, other surgeries, or infections is more accurately described as reconstructive surgery.

Strictly speaking, reconstructive surgery is commonly defined as a form of surgery performed on abnormal structures of the body brought about by the factors enumerated above. It is generally done to improve function, although it is also done to help the patient assume a normal appearance.

It may be a fact that plastic surgery, whether it be cosmetic or reconstructive, cannot achieve perfect results, but there’s no doubt that reconstructive surgery has helped millions of patients with deformities—it could be a boy born with a cleft-lip, a young woman disfigured in a horrible car accident or a man with abnormally large breasts—improve greatly as far as form and appearance are concerned.

Categories
Basically, reconstructive surgery caters to two categories of patients: those with congenital deformities or birth defects, and those with developmental deformities, which an accident, disease, or infection has inflicted upon the patient.

Common Reconstructive Surgery Procedures

Breast Reconstruction
This procedure is commonly performed on women cancer patients who’ve had mastectomy.

Breast Reduction
This type of reconstructive surgery is popular among women who want to be relieved of the burden of having larger than usual breasts. Also done on men suffering from gynaecomastia, or abnormally large breasts.

Cleft Surgery
This type of surgery is done on children born with either a cleft lip or a cleft palate. This type of reconstructive surgery is probably one of the most widespread, thanks to the charitable efforts of the plastic surgeons of Operation Smile.

Hand Surgery
Hand deformities such as syndactyly (webbing of digits), deformed or missing fingers, absent thumbs, or abnormal development of nerves, blood vessels, or tendons can usually be corrected by hand surgery, thereby restoring a sufferer’s comfort, mobility, and normal appearance.

Scar Revision
This type of surgery is not designed to make a patient’s scar disappear, as all scars are permanent; it just makes them less noticeable.

Skin Grafting
Skin grafting involves the transplantation of skin to treat, among others, extensive wounds or trauma, burns, and areas of prior infection with extensive skin loss.

There are many other reconstructive surgery procedures available, some of which are further discussed in detail in this website.

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