The plastic Surgery Department is a
young branch of modern medicine that emerged in the last century. The
expression plastic in its name comes from the ancient Greek word
"plasticos", which means "to shape, to form". The main
purpose of plastic surgery is to restore shape and function with the simplest
definition.
The aesthetic expression in the name
of the branch refers to the part of plastic surgery where the defined
techniques for reconstruction are used to make the appearance more attractive
and pleasing to the eye in actually healthy people. It is the only department
authorized to perform aesthetic interventions. On the other hand, the term
reconstructive refers to the part that performs operations aimed at restoring
shape and function, whether it is congenital or acquired due to accident,
cancer, etc. The main areas of interest of plastic surgery are surgical and
non-surgical aesthetic procedures, removal of tissue deficiencies, closure of
open wounds, reconstruction after burns, correction of facial bone fractures
and congenital head/facial deformities, cleft palate/lip correction, hand
surgery, congenital correction of hand anomalies (adjacent and extra fingers,
curvatures, underdevelopment, etc.) and microsurgery and tissue transplants
(face transplant, limb transplants). Unlike many other departments, it is the
section -perhaps the only--where operations are performed throughout the body,
from the top of the head to the nail tip of the toes, created around certain
techniques, not around a specific organ or system.
Although the establishment of modern
plastic surgery is very recent, research shows that its origins actually date
back to Ancient Egypt in 2500 BC. In India, where nose cutting is a common
punishment method for theft and various crimes, it is known that nose
reconstruction was performed by tissue transfer from the forehead by Sushuta
Samhita in 800 BC. Later, these methods were learned by western physicians
during the Renaissance and geographical discoveries and introduced in their own
countries and the origins of modern plastic surgery were laid.
Plastic surgery, which is a dynamic
branch in which new techniques and innovations are constantly being developed,
carries the horizon further every day and brings a solution to the problems
that more and more people experience every day. As in many other branches,
plastic surgeons in our country have reached the position and prestige they
deserve in the world and have contributed to the development of plastic surgery
in the world and continue to do so.
Today,
plastic surgery has a very wide operation field. Maxillofacial surgery, skin
tumors, congenital anomalies, aesthetic operations, microsurgery, hand surgery,
reconstructive surgeries, minor procedures (such as mole, cyst, and sebaceous
gland removal), and burns are the main ones. In our hospital, rhinoplasty,
breast aesthetics, skin tumors, hand surgery, reconstructive surgeries, and
minor procedures are performed.