Page 45 - Plasticos-Vol-3
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V O L 3 2019 I S S U E
REGAINING LOST BASTIONS: DR. MILIND WAGH
Two sides of the coin
When I was asked to write an article for and Craniofacial surgery, Aesthetic Surgery,
PLASTICOS on this subject, I thought long Genitourinary surgery (e.g Hypospadias,
and hard before I felt I could do justice to the Vaginal rejuvenation) and Burns management
subject. This was because I was decidedly etc. Many of the surgical procedures in these
in two minds about how I felt about it. specific fields were pioneered and hitherto
done by specialists from other fields. Be
On the one hand, I have often felt outraged that as it may, specialized training programs
like many of us that our procedures were in Plastic surgery were started at different
being poached on by others but on the centers across the world by the pioneers, which
other hand, I felt that as a service specialty, trained the next generation of surgeons who
under the Consumer Protection Act, we then practiced specifically as Plastic surgeons.
were in a fiercely competitive field where
it was literally “ May the best man (or Sir Harold Delf Gillies (UK), of the legendary
woman) win” irrespective of our training, actors in this historical scenario, considered by
our competence and our innate loyalties. many as the father of modern Plastic surgery,
was himself an ENT surgeon by training. Infact
I therefore have decided to play the Devil’s many others contributed substantially to your
advocate and present both sides of the picture discipline, despite hailing from some other.
and leave the reader to decide. In gambling
parlance, this is called “hedging one’s bets”.
How we came into being? Defining our bastions
Modern Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery So when we speak of bastions, what exactly
arose from the need to reconstruct mutilating are we speaking of? What are the procedures
and horrendous injuries in soldiers in the First which we can legitimately call our own,
World War. There were no “Plastic Surgeons” those that are specifically “Plastic Surgical”,
at that time - there were pioneering surgeons if you will. If you were to think logically and
and physicians from different specialties who be fair about it, very few indeed. The very
were interested in and devoted their time, nature of our specialty makes us vulnerable.
energy and hard work in trying to devise ways We are not organ specific or tissue specific
and means to make disfigured faces socially or system specific, like some of the other
presentable and mutilated limbs functional. specialties. We treat and manage surgical
issues from head to toe, from skin to bone!
With the passage of time and with the By virtue of the sheer expansive spectrum of
needs/demands of society, Plastic Surgery our specialty and the fact that we work with
became a specialty by itself and slowly most others, we do not have a bastion that is
became more expansive, encompassing impregnable or one we can call our very own.
diverse sub-specialties such as Cleft surgery, Our greatest USP has always been our
Hand and Microsurgery, Post-trauma and detailed and strong knowledge of human
post-cancer reconstruction, Maxillofacial anatomy, our thorough grounding in basic
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