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Mercy Mission: all aboard with Mercy Ships off the coast of West Africa

Countries along the coast of West Africa are amongst the poorest in the world. Extreme levels of poverty often lead to poor outcomes or fatalities in many medical conditions that would be eminently treatable, with good outcomes in more developed...

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...

Factors influencing a career choice in plastic surgery as a UK medical student

The medical school curriculum is increasingly focusing on the role of a general practitioner, which has resulted in medical students having reduced exposure to surgical specialties. There has been a longstanding concern that plastic surgery teaching and exposure in the...

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...

The importance of teamwork and leadership in the management of patients in burns centres

The authors discuss the vital part teamwork, leadership and communication play in the complex management of burns patients. Teamwork is a group of individuals collaboratively working together in the most efficient and effective manner to achieve a common goal [1,2]....

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...

Making the most of the temporalis fascia graft in open rhinoplasty: an innovative technique with outcomes of 2000 cases over a 15-year period

The authors present a technique that increases the surface area of a temporalis fascia graft when used to provide smooth, dorsal coverage in cases of open tip rhinoplasty. Numerous graft materials have been developed for use in rhinoplasty procedures in...

Hymenoplasty and virginity – an issue of socio-cultural morality and medical ethics

This article reflects the increasing complexity of the modern world, where the rich diversity of culture, morals, the law and religion, can have profound effects on medical practice. Sometimes there is considerable debate which is not in fact appropriate. This...

In conversation with Firas Al-Niaimi

We were delighted to catch up with Dr Firas Al-Niaimi about his career. You are internationally recognised in the fields of Mohs surgery, lasers and dermatology – can you tell us a little bit about your background? I grew up...

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...

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...