Information
Editors
Indications for Plastic Surgery
Essentials
- Tissue defects in the areas of head, body and limbs are treated in people of all ages by plastic surgery.
Indications
- Treatment of the following conditions may require plastic surgical procedures.
Cancer
- Skin cancer
- Other cancer of the face and head region
- Soft tissue sarcoma Sarcomas
- Breast cancer
- Procedures to preserve the form and symmetry of the breast are used in breast-conserving surgery (oncoplastic surgery).
- Tumours of the breast that require complete mastectomy but no further treatment may be removed in a skin-sparing operation with immediate breast reconstruction.
- Genetic predisposition to breast cancer
- Family history or a detected gene may indicate a prophylactic mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction.
- Cancer of the genital and perineal area, in both women and men, that requires reconstructive surgery
Traumas
- Facial injuries
- Shooting and blast injuries
- Tissue avulsions
- Severe injuries of the limbs and trunk
- Burns and frostbites
- Injuries caused by substances that cause tissue damage (acids, bases, cytotoxic drugs etc.)
Congenital malformations
- Cleft lip and palate Cleft Lip and Palate
- Growth disturbances and deformities of the skull
- Inborn developmental disorders of the face
- Inborn tissue defects in the trunk area
Others
- Lymphoedema (limbs Leg Oedema, genitals)
- Necrotizing infections Severe Infections of the Skin and Soft Tissues
- Large defects in the abdominal wall and large hernias
- Operation wounds that heal poorly (in cooperation with the primary surgeon)
- Sex change operations
- Corrective operations of soft tissues after weight reduction surgery
- Large breasts that cause symptoms
- Breast asymmetry
- Gynaecomastia
- Diseases that damage soft tissues
- Scar repairs Injuries Requiring Plastic Surgery
Urgent care
- See local instructions and guidelines concerning the provision of emergency services in plastic surgery.
Aesthetic surgery
- Surgery for normal changes of the human body
- Surgery on purely aesthetic indications is usually performed in private clinics only.
- Complications of aesthetic surgery requiring urgent treatment (bleeding, thrombosis, infections) are treated within the public health care if needed. Variation in these policies may exist in different countries.
- In the context of diseases and injuries, as well as in situations that cause functional disadvantage, procedures belonging to the realm of aesthetic surgery are provided in the public sector too (face lift, blepharoplasty, liposuction, fat transplantation, laser therapies, breast augmentation, abdominoplasty).