[A study on English loan words in French plastic surgery].

[INTRODUCTION] The French language is less and less used as an international scientific language and many French researchers publish their work in English. Nowadays, Annales de Chirurgie Plastique Esthétique is the only international plastic surgical journal published completely in French. The use of English loan words in French plastic surgery has never been studied.

[AIM OF THE STUDY] The aim of this study was to describe the frequency and types of English loan words in French plastic surgery.

[MATERIAL AND METHODS] A corpus consisting of all the articles in a number of Annales de Chirurgie Plastique Esthethique, chosen by default, was created. The frequency of English loan words was calculated and the types of words were analysed.

[RESULTS] The corpus contains 367 (0.8%) English loan words. Most of them are non-integrated loan words and calques. The majority of the plastic surgical loan words describe surgical techniques.

[CONCLUSION] The French plastic surgical language seems to be influenced by English. The usage of loan words does not always follow the recommendations and the usage is sometimes ambiguous.