The 5 types of Plastic Surgery (and their characteristics)

According to a study conducted and published by the International Society of Plastic Surgeons, In 2018, more than 23 million plastic surgeries were performed worldwidea figure that is 11 million higher than in 2017. It is more than clear, then, that we are facing a very widespread type of surgical intervention.

And despite this, it is surprising to see not only how we always associate plastic surgery with cosmetic surgery, but also believe (wrongly) that it is a frivolous medical specialty available only to rich people with whims. Nothing is further from reality. Plastic surgery is a branch of Medicine that allows us to recover, like few others, the physical and emotional health of patients suffering from morphological problems in their bodies.

It is true that cosmetic surgery is a branch within plastic surgery that is performed for beautification purposes, but when we talk about plastic surgery as such, we are referring to restorative surgery, one that is performed for health reasons rather than for physical appearance.

But what exactly is plastic surgery? What surgical interventions are performed within this medical discipline? What kinds of reconstructive plastic surgeries exist and in what context is each of them applied? If you want to find the answer to these and many other questions, you are in the right place. And it is that, as always from the hand of the most prestigious scientific publications, we are going to detail the bases of reconstructive plastic surgery and analyze the different branches within it.

What is plastic surgery?

Reconstructive plastic surgery, popularly known (but technically erroneous since cosmetic surgery is also considered plastic surgery but with a different clinical objective) as plastic surgery, is the surgical specialty that consists of developing medical interventions that repair the body anatomythus correcting any congenital or acquired deformity or alteration in the patient's physiognomy.

In this context, plastic surgery, which, let us remember, we should more precisely call restorative plastic surgery, seeks to return the normal appearance, functionality and aesthetics to a part of the body that, due to an accident or the development of a congenital disease or acquired, it has a morphology that is considered a deformity that affects both the physical and emotional health of the person.

Thus, plastic surgery consists of the development of repairing or reconstructive surgeries that are performed for both a clinical reason (the deformity is threatening the person's physical and/or psychological health) and an aesthetic one, although beautification is more of an objective. secondary and not exclusive as occurs in cosmetic surgery, where there is no clinical reason to intervene surgically.

Therefore, The medical purpose of reconstructive plastic surgery is for the patient to recover the morphological functionality of a part of the body and, in addition, improve its aesthetics.. From the combination of both objectives, the preservation of physical and emotional health is born. That is why it is so unfair to consider that plastic surgery is a whim. When a plastic surgery intervention is applied, it is because the person really needs it.

This explains why, unlike cosmetic surgery, which obviously does not fall within public health services, in most countries, reconstructive plastic surgery is covered by social security systems. And it is that behind the modification of the external structure of the body there is always one or several health reasons that justify its realization.

And this can range from skin grafts after suffering a serious burn to breast reconstruction after breast cancer, passing through the modification of the nose for respiratory problems (a rhinoplasty not only for aesthetics, but because it affects the respiration), the stylization of the ears (otoplasty) when there is deformity, improvement of the appearance of scars, repair of defects in the extremities, correction of asymmetries in the face after a process of facial paralysis, correction of excess skin on the eyelids , etc.

Anything that requires a modification of the body anatomy to recover the physical and/or emotional health of a patient is intervened through restorative plastic surgery.. However, depending on the exact field in which these reconstructive surgical interventions are applied, reconstructive plastic surgery can be divided into different branches that we will analyze in depth below.

What kinds of plastic surgeries are there?

As we have said, we are talking about "plastic surgery" as a synonym for "reconstructive plastic surgery". So we are not going to talk about cosmetic surgery, to which we have already dedicated another article. Thus, we are going to focus on those plastic surgeries that are performed for health reasons (and not only for beautification) and in which the surgical intervention of reconstruction of the anatomy seeks to preserve the physical and emotional health of the patient. Having made this clear, let's see what types of plastic surgeries exist.

1. Breast reconstruction

Breast reconstruction is a type of plastic surgery that consists of rebuild one or both breasts, usually in women who have had a mastectomythat is, a surgery that removes the breasts to treat (or prevent, in some cases) breast cancer, the second most common type of malignant tumor that, yes, if detected early, has a survival rate of 99%.

This type of plastic surgery can be performed with natural tissue (flap breast reconstruction), that is, the breast(s) is reconstructed and remodeled using skin, muscle, and fat from another part of the body (usually the abdomen); or with implants, that is, inserting silicone devices called breast implants that are filled with silicone gel or saline solution to reshape the breasts.

2. Burn repair

Second and, of course, third degree burns usually require, although it depends on the degree of involvement and the exact area damaged, plastic reconstruction surgery. Deeper burns may require outpatient or inpatient surgery, depending on the circumstance.

Even so, this type of plastic surgery consists of performing tissue expansion techniques or implanting grafts in order to provide new epithelial tissue to the area. Results take weeks to be visible and will depend on the patient and the severity of the underlying injury, but it is important that the surgery is applied once the healing process has finished. After this, with surgical reconstruction you can try to recover the appearance of the skin as much as possible.

3. Repair of congenital deformities

This type of plastic surgery includes all those surgical interventions that serve to reconstruct certain regions of the anatomy that, due to congenital diseases, suffer some deformation from the person's birth. A) Yes, is the reconstructive surgery that treats congenital malformations.

Among these deformities that have a greater or lesser impact on the physical and/or emotional health of the patient from birth and that can be treated with plastic surgery are cleft lip, craniofacial malformations, angiomas, hypospadias (the opening of the urethra is not at the tip of the penis), polydactyly (being born with more fingers than normal), etc.

4. Hand surgery

"Hand surgery" is a general concept that appeals to all those plastic surgical interventions in which surgeons, in the face of trauma in this region, congenital deformities, infections or rheumatic pathologies that affect the appearance and functionality of the hands, restore their physiology and return, within the possibilities, the aesthetic physical aspect of these structures.

This includes graft implantation, tendon repair, bone alignment, nerve repair, fasciotomy (incisions to release pressure), joint replacement, surgical drains, etc. Also note that, as is evident, Reconstruction surgery can be performed on the rest of the upper limbs and also on the lower limbs, these being generally associated with congenital malformations.

5. Surgical revision of scars

By surgical revision of scars we understand all those plastic surgeries that are performed to improve, disguise or reduce the appearance of scars, whether these are due to trauma, burns or even a previous surgical intervention. These surgeries are aimed both at correcting deformities in the skin, both in terms of texture and appearance, that arise as a result of scarring, as well as recovering the functionality of the region of the body in the event that it has been compromised.

Obviously, to improve the appearance of scars, it is best to opt for non-surgical procedures such as laser, which often gives good results quickly and easily. But there are times where this plastic surgery is the only viable option.

Dehiscent scars (those particularly wide), very depressed (due to lack of collagen), very marked (having irregular edges) and/or those that must be reoriented since they exert pressure and tension on the skin are the ones that are likely to be treated through this surgical revision of scars.

This type of procedure consists of replacing the scar that is affecting aesthetics and/or functionality by means of a new surgical excision. In other words, We remove part of the skin from the scarred area to “start from scratch” and stimulate the body to heal again with, hopefully, better results.