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Plastic surgery

Plastic surgery is the general term for all kinds of surgery which is
performed for functional or aesthetic reasons, rather than to heal an
illness.

The principal applications for plastic surgery are:

   * reconstructive surgery, including microsurgery, which tries to undo or
     mask the destructive effects of an accident or illness, for instance
     closing defects with free flaps after oncological resection
   * hand surgery, including hand injuries and finger- or hand
     replantations, rheumatoid surgery and congenital hand surgery
   * craniofacial surgery, especially for children with growth disorders of
     the skull
   * cosmetic surgery, which is done purely to change features the patient
     does not like for personal reasons

Common cases of reconstructive surgery are breast reconstruction for women
who have had a mastectomy, facial- and contracture surgery for burn victims,
closing skin- or mucosa defects after removal of tumors in the head and neck
region. The most popular operations in cosmetic surgery are probably eyelid
surgery, face lifting and liposuction.

There is a definite gray area between plastic and cosmetic surgery. For
instance a bat ear correction is not considered cosmetic surgery, however,
this is not a debilitating or dangerous condition. Many people take a dim
view of cosmetic surgery, as they see it as frivolous. It does at any rate
involve some risk (like any operation) and should therefore not be
undertaken lightly. Within the US, critics of plastic surgery have noted
that it is legal for any doctor (regardless of speciality) to perform
plastic surgery; a practice which, critics argue, leads to poorly performed surgery.

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