Plastic surgery in a large hospital.

It may be debated whether the interaction between plastic surgery and other specialties is important enough to justify the presence of a department of plastic surgery in a large teaching hospital. To provide some data on which to base such discussion we have analysed the interaction at the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen over a ten year period (1970-1980). In the plastic surgery department almost 10% of all the operations were on patients from the wards of ther departments. One tenth of these operations were combined operations carried out in collaboration with surgeons from other specialties. Otherwise intractable conditions may be cured by such combined activity and a properly organised "skin-grafting service" pays handsome dividends by shortening the healing time for ulcers within the hospital.