Report on the talk about plastic surgery
The R.A.F.’s Role in Plastic Surgery
Anthony Attwood 24 / 4 / 19
Had we really thought before about how important the R.A.F. was in the progress of Plastic Surgery ? Of course the horrific burns suffered by Pilots , Army and Navy made the learning about how to deal with the medical , surgical and social problems encountered essential .
Plastic Surgery first started in approx. 1000 AD with mostly reconstructed noses . The damage had been caused by war , accident or infidelity . It became to have it’s name because of Plasticise meaning ‘to mould’ . While nowadays we have ‘Free Tissue Transfer ‘ originally tissue had to be taken from an attached flap to ensure continued blood flow .
Before World War 2 there were just 4 plastic surgeons in The UK . The RAF then suffered 3,600 burns to face and hands . Those that fell into the sea fared better than those who did not . The lesson learnt from that was that the salt and the moisture were both very important . The learning was fast as before the war 50% would die in 24 hrs and 75% in 3 days . When fluids were replaced and warm salt water baths used the survival improved to 50 to 60% . Visors and long-sleeved flying suits became very important and when jet aircraft became used the pilots could eject . At this time also the government brought out the rule for fire-retardent nightclothes .
The Falklands War brought many blast injuries from The St Galahad . Anthony went himself with the medical team who flew down to The Falklands to bring back and treat these patients some of whom suffered >40% burns . Kaltostat dressings came into being stimulating healing with sodium alginate gel . We learnt about Split Thickness Grafts and Full Thickness Grafts .
Briefly Anthony showed us other examples of plastic surgery including in post cancer reconstruction.
Anthony’s talk was very interesting because we were so interested in his subject and because we love to hear about the lives of our own members and also in this case because a lot of the treatments and progress in Plastic Surgery happened on our doorstep at our own Princess Mary’s Hospital at Halton which was closed in 1996 .
Victoria P
Click Plastic surgery on Wikipedia to see further details ----- .