The importance of skin preparation

With both aesthetic procedures and antibiotic resistance on the rise, good skin disinfection to reduce the risk of infection is more vital than ever. Anna Baker takes us through the evidence behind commonly used skin preparation formulations for aesthetic injectable...

Clitoral reconstructive surgery after female genital cutting

Female genital mutilation / cutting (FGM/C), aka female circumcision, is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “All procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons” [1]. Practised in Africa and other...

British Foundation for International Surgery and Training

Two of the UK’s most innovative Plastic Surgeons, Barbara Jemec and Wee Lam, give a fascinating account of the work of BFIRST overseas and, perhaps most importantly, explain how you can get involved. The British Foundation for International Surgery and...

Closed rhinoplasty Serdev techniques

Why is rhinoplasty so important? Facial beauty and harmony are dependent on correct aesthetic angles, volumes and proportions. The complex face is properly divided into three equal parts: forehead, nose, and lower part (where the upper lip forms a ratio...

Real-world use of telemedicine – a picture is worth a thousand words

Recent advances in mobile phone camera technology and app software design have allowed photos of patients and their wounds to be sent from any smartphone to a secure NHS database, which can then be accessed by the relevant clinician with...

Canniesburn: 50 years at the forefront of plastic surgery

Past and present colleagues and friends recently celebrated 50 years of the Canniesburn Plastic Surgery Unit, with scientific meetings held at The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow. Friendships were renewed and memories of being part of the...

Reconstruction of complex wounds in the trunk and pelvis (part 2)

In this second part of this two-part article we begin by looking at component separation which is a technique of reconfiguring anatomical layers to allow intrinsic reconstruction of the integrity of the anterior abdominal wall. We then move into the...

Reconstruction of complex wounds in the trunk and pelvis (part 1)

This is the first part of a two-part article looking at the challenges of reconstruction of complex defects in the torso. The articles are based on a presentation given at the World Union of Wound Healing Societies held in Yokohama...

Medicinal leech therapy in plastic surgery

The medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis) has played a role in treating illness for over 3500 years [1]. It has survived rapid paradigm shifts in medical sciences and knowledge. In Ancient Rome, the use of leeches for bloodletting was propagated by...

Could a technology from the past change skin disinfection for the future?

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to argue that the field of medicine has seen some of the most significant scientific advances of the past 100 years: the cracking of genetic coding, the advances in pharmacology, the development of biopharmaceuticals and the...

A guide to hair transplantation

A leading hair transplant surgeon provides an overview of the most effective surgical treatments for hair restoration – and how the industry will develop over the next decade. Modern hair transplant techniques were first developed in Japan in the 1930s...

The medial gastrocnemius flap

This classic muscle flap is now being used with increasing frequency following revision knee joint surgery. Following the Nahai and Mathes classification, the gastrocnemius muscle is a Type I muscle with a single dominant vascular pedicle (Figure 1). The gastrocnemius...