Dear Friends,
Having worked as a Plastic surgeon over the years, I have realized that most of the people have very little knowledge about Plastic Surgery…
Patients often ask questions like…Do you use Plastic in your operations?…..Why it is called Plastic Surgery? ….Is it very costly?.. How it all started?…
To answer these questions I am writing this blog…
The earliest mention of Plastic surgery originated from our own country in Sushruta Samhita, the textbook containing his teachings. Sushruta, the father of Surgery, in 6th century B.C. performed surgeries which no one could have even imagined possible at that time.
Modern day Plastic Surgery developed as a result of a need, to treat the casualties of the two world wars. What started as a specialty treating difficult wounds… gradually developed into a broad spectrum branch of surgery dealing with Burns, Facial fractures, Congenital defects, post cancer defects, Hand & Microvascular surgery and Clefts and Craniofacial Surgery. The specialty came in the spotlight with the emergence of Aesthetic or Cosmetic surgery. Suddenly, everybody was talking about Plastic Surgery. Starting from a handful of Plastic surgeons, the fraternity now has more than 1500 trained Plastic surgeons in our country today.
Modern Plastic surgery can be divided in seven groups, with Transplant Surgery being the latest addition. Transplant surgery deals with the transplant of Hand and Face.
Plastic surgery got it’s name from the the greek word ‘Plastikos’, which means ‘to mold’, as it essentially deals with the molding and reshaping of the human form and body. So, it’s obvious now that Plastic Surgery has nothing to do with the material plastic. Plastic surgery is very much like any other branch of surgery and is not very costly.