Summary:
Telemedicine is an application of modern technology that allows for the remote delivery of healthcare services to diagnose and treat patients. The potential patient benefits of such a program include added convenience, lowered costs, and improved access. From a practical standpoint, establishing a telemedicine program may seem daunting to the plastic surgeon; success requires not only patient and provider adoption, but also integration of new technology. Despite these challenges, breast reconstruction patients are among those who stand to benefit most from telemedicine technology, as this patient population remains vulnerable to limitations to access following an emotion-provoking breast cancer diagnosis. Geographical limitation, especially in rural areas, represents a major barrier to access. To date, the application of telemedicine in caring for breast reconstruction patients has not been described in the literature. In this article, we describe the protocol developed and implemented by our academic plastic surgery group to care for new breast reconstruction candidates and discuss the role of telemedicine in improved access to breast reconstruction care.
Summary:
There are multiple subspecialties that residents can pursue after core plastic surgery training, including 5 major fellowship categories: aesthetic, burn, craniofacial, hand, and microsurgery. Hand surgery remains the only plastic surgery subspecialty to date, with a formal accreditation process following fellowship. The purpose of this study was to review the literature regarding the accreditation and match process of plastic surgery fellowship programs, the process of hand surgery certification, and future directions pertaining to certification in other plastic surgery subspecialties.
Resorbable surgical materials are often used in the pediatric population to provide fixation in the growing skeleton. Although foreign body reactions to poly-D-L-lactic acid (PDLLA) plates and screws have been previously reported in other fields, to date PDLLA polymers have been well-tolerated in the setting of craniofacial surgery. The authors report a case of a previously healthy 4-month-old patient with Crouzon syndrome who underwent a frontal-orbital advancement with resorbable PDLLA plates and screws and subsequently experienced extensive foreign body reactions and wound healing complications.
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