The effect of new technologies on plastic surgery.

Plastic surgery has always been a technique- and technology-driven surgical discipline, given that there is no regional anatomic focus. There has been a remarkable evolution in technique over the last 25 years with an increased understanding of anatomy leading to a whole host of new and more reliable flaps, which has transformed reconstructive surgery, breast reconstruction being one notable example. The development and maturation of microsurgery has led to the full fruition of anatomic principles. With better understanding of blood supply to the skin, fascia, muscle, and bone, many traditional reconstructive procedures are constantly being superseded by the new, ingenious use of various tissue flaps. Advances in technology will accomplish another transformation of the specialty, notably the recent advances in tissue engineering, the potential of gene therapy, new alloplastic materials, and computer-assisted imaging technology. It would be impossible to address all of the recent advances in this rapidly expanding field of surgery in a short article. We have selected a few topics that we thought would be the most interesting to all surgeons to give a wide view of a variety of challenges addressed by the modern plastic surgeon. Major advances in surgery often come from cross-fertilization between specialties, and plastic surgeons have frequently been involved in this process.