Past, present and future in plastic flap surgery: From surgeon to bioengineer driven progress. A personal view

Abstract

By tracking the evolution of flaps in plastic surgery most progress in the beginning has to be credited first by medical professionals during the last centuries by introducing new personal ideas or procedural techniques and second by technical innovations based on bioscientific engineering coupled with public needs and changes in social life as part of the human society. From simply primary wound closure in the very early stages to procedures with donor site morbidity without complete function restoring to most probably sophisticated complete onsite reconstruction without almost any surgeon's help by functional 3D-tissue bioprinting in a large scale bioreactor in the future. By following these major developments from the past to present we will try to get a glimpse of what's maybe next in plastic flap surgery over the following decenniums.