| Dr. Hisham Seify is a plastic surgeon certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. Here the Doctor has answered some of the common questions bizymoms visitors have about Reconstructive Surgery.
Q. What is reconstructive surgery?
A. Reconstructive surgery is the mother of all inventions in plastic surgery. It deals with repair of congenital anomalies, repair of different body parts following trauma, burn, and cancer resection etc….It is what make us proud of being real plastic surgeons.
Q. What is the difference between Cosmetic and Reconstructive surgery?
A. Cosmetic surgery deals mainly with acquired deformity due to aging, child birth, nursing e.g. face lift, tummy tuck, breast lift and augmentation.
Reconstructive Surgery helped cosmetic surgery to develop and grow but in the same time excellence in cosmetic surgery allowed us to have much better results as reconstructive surgeons. A well trained surgeon should be able to perform both.
Q. What benefits does Reconstructive surgery provide?
A. Restoration of different body parts. It includes:
Hand Surgery: Deals with hand fractures and injuries.
Maxillofacial surgery: Repair of Broken bones of the face.
Head & Neck surgery: Repair of head & neck after cancer excision.
Burn surgery: Reconstruction following burn.
General reconstruction: Reconstruction following trauma or cancer removal.
Craniofacial Surgery: Reconstruction of congenital anomalies of the head e.g. cleft lip and palate.
Q. Who is a good candidate for Reconstructive surgery?
A. Any patient who had trauma, cancer etc…is a good candidate. Medical clearance is necessary before any of these procedures.
Q. Does Reconstructive surgery have possible risks and complications?
A. Any surgical procedure carries risks and it is the role of the treating physician to outline these risks and provide different alternatives. Communication is the most important part of the doctor –patient relationship.
Q. How long does it take to recover from Reconstructive surgery?
A. It depends on the procedure. For example a common procedure that I perform is breast cancer reconstruction. It takes 1-3 days in the hospital and one week of general recovery.
Q. Does Reconstructive surgery leave any visible scarring?
A. The scarring depends on the degree of trauma or cancer excision performed prior to the reconstruction. Recent advances in reconstruction allow us to perform these procedures with the same degree of excellence that we adhere to in cosmetic surgery.
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