Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

Experimental Models and Research Designs

There is a paradigm shift in plastic and reconstructive surgery from the interest of developing new surgical techniques into the application of new technologies via research based studies on stem cells, tissue engineering and new field of reconstructive transplantation such as e.g. face, hand or larynx transplants. This approach is relatively novel and introduced to plastic surgery within past decade. Thus there is an urgent need to facilitate access to this new knowledge which was not traditionally a part of plastic surgery curriculum. The most efficient way of introducing these new approaches is via presentation of pertinent to different fields (stem cell, transplantation, nerve regeneration, tissue engineering) experimental models which can be used as a tool to develop technologies of interest by different groups of surgeons. These surgical specialities which will be interested and benefit from the book include: plastic and reconstructive surgeons, microsurgeons, hand surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons and transplant surgeons.