Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty dedicated to reconstruction of facial and body defects due
to birth disorders, trauma, burns, and disease. There are dozens of well qualified plastic surgeons
in the Chicago area alone.
The art and science of Chicago plastic surgery is also involved with the enhancement
of the appearance of a person through such operations as facelift, rhinoplasty, breast augmentation,
and liposuction.
Why the "Plastic" in Plastic Surgery?
The word "plastic" comes from the Greek word plastikos, meaning "to mold or shape."
Many of the first plastic surgeries were developed to close a difficult wound or
replace tissue lost due to injury or cancer. These procedures often involved the
formation of a skin flap to reshape or mold the defect so as to approximate the
original shape.
What's the difference between Cosmetic and Reconstructive surgery?
-
Chicago cosmetic surgery is performed to reshape normal structures of the body in order to
improve the patient's appearance and self-esteem. Cosmetic surgery in Chicago is usually not covered
by health insurance because it is elective.
-
Reconstructive surgery is performed on abnormal structures of the body, caused by congential
defects, developmental abnormalities, trauma, infection, tumors or disease. It is generally
performed to improve function, but may also be done to approximate a normal appearance.
Reconstructive surgery in Chicago is generally covered by most health insurance policies although
coverage for specific procedures and levels of coverage may vary greatly.
More on Chicago Cosmetic Surgery
With more than a 175% growth rate in the 1990s alone, cosmetic surgery has indeed flourished. Currently, the most
common cosmetic procedure performed by Chicago plastic surgeons is lipoplasty or liposuction. More than 230,000 such
procedures are now performed by board-certified plastic surgeons each year in the United States. While the
idea of using a blunt hollow cannula attached to suction to remove fat was initially described in the mid
1970s by two Italian dermatologic surgeons, Arpad and Giorgio Fischer, a combination of plastic, dermatologic,
and head and neck surgeons helped to popularize this procedure in the United States in the late 1970s and 1980's.
The first American instructional course in lipoplasty was taught in 1982 by Dolsky and Newman, a plastic surgeon
and otolaryngologist, respectively. In 1987, dermatologist Jeffrey Klein revolutionized lipoplasty with the
introduction of tumescent anesthesia, which allowed for a significantly greater volume of fat removal, while
at the same time considerably decreasing blood loss.
Breast augmentation now ranks second only to lipoplasty as the most common cosmetic procedure performed by
plastic surgeons in the United States as well as Chicago. Nearly 170,000 such procedures were performed in 1999, representing
a 413% increase since 1992. Essentially, 3 different means of breast augmentation have been attempted, with
varying success, in the modern era of plastic surgery: autogenous tissue, injectable synthetic materials,
and implantable prosthetic devices.
|
