When most people use the term Plastic Surgery, they more often than not use it in reference to cosmetic surgery. Few people actually stop to think that Plastic Surgery covers a far wider range of surgical procedures and that cosmetic surgery is only one type of surgery related to Plastic Surgery. The full scope of Plastic Surgery is quite wide if one stops to think about it and more often than not, is related to, and, plays a fundamental role in conjunction with other fields of medicine and surgical procedures pertaining to the field of general surgery. Plastic Surgery is basically concerned with the reconstruction of the surface of the body whether that has to do with the reconstruction of facial or body disfigurations that are either congenital in nature or, acquired due to accidents or illness for example, cancer related disfigurations.

Although Plastic Surgery goes as far back as Ancient Egypt the first physicians who actually placed a more scientific scope in the field of Plastic Surgery and, to be more precise, cosmetic surgery were two Sicilians Gustav and Antonio Branka . Father and son, in 1400, they outlined the basic guidelines which plastic surgeons should follow when undertaking reconstructive nose surgery. However, the first to ever create a center for Plastic Surgery and to take the first steps to making Plastic Surgery an equally accepted field of medicine was another Italian, Taliakosi.

However, it was not until after World War I that Plastic Surgery developed its full scope of use. This was due to the enormous amount of facial and body disfigurations which either resulted in Plastic Surgery being undertaken for aesthetic reasons, to regain functional abilities or, more often than not, for both.

From then on and up until today, Plastic Surgery continues to play an ever increasingly important role as a field of medicine in today’s’ society either on its own when referring to simple cosmetic surgery or as part of, and in relation to other fields of surgical specialties.

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