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The First World War and the Development of Facial Surgery

Facial surgery has a history stretching to antiquity, but its success depended on luck until medical science had advanced enough to deal with three major issues – infection, surgical shock from blood loss and good anaesthesia. It was not until...

The truth behind facelift myths

As the number of non-surgical options to treat the ageing face has increased in recent years, so have the number of myths about facelift surgery. This article, from two expert facial plastic surgeons from Stanford Hospital in California, provides the...

Recent developments in hyaluronic acid research

Hyaluronic acid has a role in many medical specialties, not just aesthetics. Anna Baker takes us through the latest evidence and therapeutic indications. The evidence and demand for hyaluronic acid (HA) based technologies continues to expand and evolve across a...

Thread lifting – the fundamentals

"Thread lifting” is a minimally invasive outpatient procedure that is becoming increasingly popular internationally [1-3]. Threads are surgical sutures that can be utilised for facial and body contouring and rejuvenation. These sutures can be used for skin rejuvenation as bio-stimulators...

An epidemic of lower limb gunshot injuries

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact upon us all, the author, a reconstructive plastic surgeon, provides a thought-provoking account of a different type of epidemic that is having devastating consequences. The Oxford English Dictionary defines an epidemic as “a...

The gender affirmation surgery MDT

The authors provide a comprehensive and thought-provoking discussion of the multidisciplinary nature of caring for someone undergoing gender reassignment surgery. In the last 50 years in the UK an estimated 130,000 people have changed their gender assigned at birth (assigned...

Soft tissue augmentation – a review

The author explains how treating the face as a 3D structure is key to a good result with invasive or non-invasive procedures. History Rejuvenation of the face and trying to reverse the effects of ageing dates back centuries. Facial volume...

Hair removal: a summary of techniques with a particular emphasis on the importance and versatility of electrolysis

Background and causes of excess or unwanted hair The management of unwanted body and facial hair has been a constant challenge for the human species since the dawn of human culture in the Neolithic era. Of note this was the...

The role of angiogenesis in wound healing, scarring and tissue regeneration

In the UK alone there are 175,000 people who visit Accident & Emergency departments with burns each year. This results in around 13,000 hospital admissions, of which 1000 are due to severe burns [1]. Over half of these admissions are...

How developments in maxillofacial surgery have contributed to improved quality of life for patients

The patient perspective, functional outcomes and morbidity are key factors that influence ‘quality of life’ [1,2]. There are many examples of how developments in oral and maxillofacial surgery have improved the outcome and ‘quality of life’ for patients with head,...

The patient journey in DIEP flap breast reconstruction

In the UK approximately 40,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. About 40% of these need, or choose, to undergo mastectomy, where all of the breast tissue is removed. Currently around a third of these patients choose to...