Über die Solidarität unter den chirurgischen Fachgebieten oder "Wer nicht mit am Tisch sitzt, landet auf der Speisekarte" About Solidarity among Surgical Specialties or "If you don't Sit at the Table, You are on the Menu" Dear readers, As a plastic surgeon you grow up in the commu nity of surgeons of all specialties. You develop an awareness that the field of plastic surgery is an integral part of surgery. You strongly believe that the surgical specialties have built a strong com munity of solidarity among each other-the uni ty of surgery. However, looking behind the scenes you will watch this notion fade away and you start noti cing that your expectations and reality are far apart. Surgical disciplines support each other. Especially the large traditional specialties often fail to show solidarity with the smaller ones such as thoracic surgery, vascular surgery and plastic surgery, which often have a hard time. The field of plastic surgery needs to assert its in terests. Too often it is dismissed as "life style sur gery" by the traditional specialties of surgery or placed on the same level as pure "cosmetic sur gery" and is therefore categorised as insignificant not only in the public eye, but also among sur geons themselves [1, 2]. Often this is due to the fact that surgeons ignore the fascinating achieve ments made in this specialist field-achieve R. E. Giunta Abb. 1 Solidarität unter den chirurgischen Fachgebieten: Jüngere Fachgebiete werden von den etablierten Fachgebieten unterstützt (© fotomek / Fotolia.com). Dieses Dokument wurde zum persönlichen Gebrauch heruntergeladen. Vervielfältigung nur mit Zustimmung des Verlages.