Revolution Forecast In Plastic Surgery

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30846, 3 September 1965, Page 16

Revolution Forecast In Plastic Surgery

It was hal'd to tell how close plastic and reconstructive surgeons were to their great goal of being able to transplant skin and organs from one person to another, said Dr. T. R. Broadbent, a distinguished American plastic surgeon, in Christchurch yesterday.

“It may be tomorrow or it may not happen in my lifetime,” he said. “But when it is possible, just think what it would mean for burns. You would be able to order up a square yard of cadaver skin and make a burn victim as good as new.” Dr. Broadbent said that certain advances had been made, and it was now possible to prolong the life of a homograft (transplant from one person to another) for a greater time than was previously possible. “Best Advances” The best advances had; taken place in the treatment for cleft palates, and with plastic surgeons, orthodontists, and speech therapists working together, standard good results were being achieved and regularly repeated. “Anyone with a cleft palate can now be sure of getting a socially acceptable face and speech,” said Dr. Broadbent. There had been tremendous advances in that field in the last 10 ye. s, and surgeons were becoming very critical of their own work. The work being done in Christchurch on the balancing of ja/'s to correct facial 'deformities, and on cleft lips and palates, was equal to the best in the world, he said. “This is being done very well here,” he said. “They are working with top-notch efficiency, and they deserve every support that the hospi-

tal administration and the community can give them in enlarging this programme for the welfare of the children who have these problems.” Dr. Broadbent is secretarygeneral of the International Confederation for Plastic Surgery, which will hold its world congress in Rome in 1967. He is director of the residency programme in the plastic surgery department of the W. H. Grovers Latter-day Saints Hospital, Salt Lake City. In 1958, he won the prize given by the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons for original research. On World Tour

Dr. Broadbent is on a world tour of member centres and societies of the international confederation, evaluating their training programmes. He wii visit South America next year, with the ultimate goal of establishing international minimum standards for training in plastic and reconstructive surgery. “In many countries the standards vary so much that it is sometimes difficult to tell whether a man is trained at all,” said Dr. Broadbent. “We would like to encourage certain basic minimums, and then when we have exchange programmes we will know that the surgeons involved have certain basic knowledge.”

He was quick to add that there was no problem in Christchurch. “This is in the nature of a pleasure visit to see what is being done,” he said.