The Scope of Plastic Surgery: Beyond Beauty, Beyond Boundaries

Abstract

I think this is high time to reflect on certain points regarding Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery- to know what Plastic Surgery actually means, what is its scope, and what are the various mystifications/misunderstandings prevailing about this speciality in the minds of common people, and even among some medicos.

Although some consider Plastic Surgery as a relatively newer art; in fact, it is one of the oldest disciplines of surgery in the world. Sushruta (600 B.C.), acknowledged as the Father of Plastic Surgery, is credited with describing plastic surgical principles in his famous ancient treatise 'Sushruta Samhita’. He was probably the first person to perform plastic surgical operations.  All the basic principles of plastic surgery find an important place in his writings. His knowledge was so profound that he believed that medicine was as essential for a surgeon as his surgical know-how, otherwise, he would be a “bird with a single wing’’!

To start with, the name ‘Plastic’ in itself is quite incomplete and confusing. The name has not been taken from the popular ‘synthetic substance’ but the Greek word ‘plastikos’. The word itself means ‘moulding or sculpting’, reiterating the fact that it is a moldable branch: ever evolving and refining.