Background Plastic surgery training in the UK continues to evolve towards an outcome-based rather than time-served curriculum. UK plastic surgery trainees are appointed nationally, and are assessed according to national standards, but training is delivered regionally. This study sought opinion from current UK plastic surgery trainees in order to highlight strengths and shortcomings of the higher surgical training programme. Method A cross-sectional study was designed and administered by the UK Plastic Surgery Trainees Association (PLASTA). A questionnaire was distributed to all UK plastic surgery trainees holding a National Training Number, using the REDCap web-based application. Results Of the 320 UK plastic surgery trainees, 131 (41%) participated in this survey, with responses from all 12 UK training regions. The most common subspecialty career aspirations for trainees were hand surgery, cleft lip and palate, lower limb and oncoplastic breast reconstruction. The survey highlighted regional variation in teaching programmes, the ability to achieve indicative operative logbook numbers, and training in aesthetic surgery. Of the trainees, 82% expressed a desire to undertake a fellowship within their training, but most did not know whether their deanery would support this. Fifteen per cent of the respondents were currently training flexibly and the majority of these had experienced negative behaviours towards their less than full time working status. Of the respondents, 44% reported stress, 25% reported a lack of autonomy and 17% reported feeling burnt out at work at least once a week. A total of 85% perceived that they did not have access to a mentoring service. Conclusions Plastic surgery remains a popular and highly competitive surgical speciality in the UK, and many trainees reported high levels of satisfaction during their training. Aspects of training that could be improved have been highlighted and recommendations made accordingly.

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Background: The submental flap is a pedicled island flap with excellent colour match for facial reconstruction. The flap can be raised with muscle, submandibular gland or bone and can be transposed to reach defects up to two thirds of the face. We report the primary author's experience of 25 years using the submental flap from its original description to most recent technical evolutions in both Europe and Africa. Methods: This is a retrospective study including all patients with facial defects reconstructed using a submental flap between 1991 and 2016. This study included the use of all four variations of the submental flap: "platysmal', "digastric", "extended" and "super extended". We report technical adaptations and complications encountered. Results: We performed 311 facial reconstructions using submental flaps: 32 "platysmal", 133 "digastric", 91 "extended" and 45 "super extended" variations. In conjunction with these reconstructions, we performed 10 osteocutanous submental flaps and 2 free flaps. We report 2 cases of total flap necrosis (0.6%) and 28 minor complications including: 23 cases of distal skin necrosis (7%), 1 reversible mandibular facial nerve palsy (0.3%) and 3 hematomas (1%). Conclusions: The submental flap has proven to be a reliable flap for head and neck reconstruction. The four technical modifications described employ varying amounts of soft tissue to replace tissue lost and can include vascularized bone from the mandibular margin. This flap exemplifies Gillies' principle of "replacing like with like" and should be discussed as an alternative to free tissue transfer in facial reconstruction, especially in settings where resources are limited.

Background: Short-term surgical missions (STSMs) enable visiting surgeons to help address inequalities in the provision of surgical care in resource-limited settings. One criticism of STSMs is a failure to obtain informed consent from patients before major surgical interventions. We aim to use collective evidence to establish the barriers to obtaining informed consent on STSMs and in resource-limited settings and suggest practical solutions to overcome them. Methods: A systematic review was performed using PubMed and Web of Science databases and following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guidelines. In addition to the data synthesized from the systematic review, we also include pertinent data from a recent long-term follow-up study in Ethiopia. Results: Of the 72 records screened, 11 studies were included in our review. The most common barrier to obtaining informed consent was a paternalistic approach to medicine and patient education. Other common barriers were a lack of ethics education among surgeons in low-income and middle-income countries, cultural beliefs toward healthcare, and language barriers between the surgeons and patients. Our experience of a decade of reconstructive surgery missions in Ethiopia corroborates this. In a long-term follow-up study of our head-and-neck patients, informed consent was obtained for 85% (n = 68) of patients over a 14-year period. Conclusions: This study highlights the main barriers to obtaining informed consent on STSMs and in the resource-limited setting. We propose a checklist that incorporates practical solutions to the most common barriers surgeons will experience, aimed to improve the process of informed consent on STSMs.

Purpose of Review This article aims to review published outcomes associated with full-thickness vascularized abdominal wall transplantation, with particular emphasis on advances in the field in the last 3 years. Recent Findings Forty-six full-thickness vascularized abdominal wall transplants have been performed in 44 patients worldwide. Approximately 35% of abdominal wall transplant recipients will experience at least one episode of acute rejection in the first year after transplant, compared with rejection rates of 87.8% and 72.7% for hand and face transplant respectively. Recent evidence suggests that combining a skin containing abdominal wall transplant with an intestinal transplant does not appear to increase sensitization or de novo donor-specific antibody formation. Summary Published data suggests that abdominal wall transplantation is an effective safe solution to achieve primary closure of the abdomen after intestinal or multivisceral transplant. However, better data is needed to confirm observations made and to determine long-term outcomes, requiring standardized data collection and reporting and collaboration between the small number of active transplant centres around the world.

The practice of partial mastectomy (PM) in patients with breast cancer has gained momentum over total mastectomy since the results of randomized clinical trials that have provided evidence demonstrating equivalent survival. 1 But in recent years there has been a relative decline in PM compared to bilateral mastectomies, which has been attributed to inadequate esthetic outcomes after PM without reconstruction, which ultimately affects patient satisfaction and their health-related quality of life. 2 On the other hand, PM with immediate reconstruction -what we define as oncoplastic breast surgery (OPBS) -has been proven to be a safe and efficacious means of improving both aesthetics outcomes compared to PM alone without affecting oncological outcomes. 3 Despite the benefits of OPBS, its nationwide utilization has never been precisely quantified. To facilitate future efforts to increase its availability to appropriate candidate patients, this study aims to establish the recent rate and temporal trends of national utilization of OPBS.The American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database was reviewed for the period 2006-2015 to identify all women 18 years and older who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer or carcinoma in situ, and underwent PM, as well as identify the subset of women who also underwent any reconstructive procedure during the 30-day postoperative period.The primary outcome was the overall rate of OPBS for the study period, and the temporal trends from 2006 to 2015. The secondary outcome was the annual trend for each OPBS technique: volume displacement (VD), breast reduction (BR), volume reduction (VR), prosthesis, and mastopexy. All statistical tests were two-sided, and p-value of < 0.05 was considered significant. A total 91,129 women underwent PM during the period 2006-2015 of which 4.2% ( n = 3777

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