Plastic Surgery's Identity Crisis

Abstract

Many of you already know the story. In 1967, Drs Simon Fredericks and John Lewis sat in Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy, scribbling on a napkin the names of plastic surgeons who they felt might be interested in forming a new society dedicated solely to aesthetic surgery education. What you may not remember is that the original name given to this new entity was the Society of Aesthetic Surgeons. ( Aesthetic was felt to be more elegant than cosmetic and without the connotation of superficiality.) In 1969, at the group's first Scientific Meeting—which was attended by some 100 members and guests—the name was changed to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). The reason on record for incorporating plastic surgery into the name was to identify that the members of this new society were board-certified plastic surgeons.1 In 1999, the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS) changed its name, after long and heated debate among members, to the simplified American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The early impetus for contemplating some type of name change was an ASPRS survey suggesting that Americans equated plastic surgeon with cosmetic surgeon and did not understand the role of reconstructive surgery in the specialty.2 Some members argued that having both plastic and reconstructive in the society's name gave the impression that reconstructive surgery was something different and apart from plastic surgery. Others, who believed the economic future of the specialty was dependent on cosmetic rather than reconstructive surgery, felt that the original name played into the hands of competitors who sought to characterize board-certified plastic surgeons as “generalists” rather than cosmetic surgery specialists. In a March 2000 Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery editorial, Dr Rod Rohrich hailed the name change as bringing ASPS “in line with the modern concept of who …