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Horch. Plast Aesthet Res 2018;5:42 Plastic and
DOI: 10.20517/2347-9264.2018.64 Aesthetic Research

Editorial Open Access

Wound healing and plastic surgery - an introduction
to a special issue

Raymund E. Horch

Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuernberg FAU, Erlangen
D-91054, Germany.

Correspondence to: Dr. Raymund E. Horch, Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander
University Erlangen-Nuernberg FAU, Erlangen D-91054, Germany. E-mail: raymund.horch@uk-erlangen.de

How to cite this article: Horch RE. Wound healing and plastic surgery - an introduction to a special issue. Plast Aesthet Res 2018;5:42.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-9264.2018.64

Received: 8 Sep 2018 Accepted: 14 Sep 2018 Published: 19 Oct 2018
Science Editor: Raúl González-García Copy Editor: Cui Yu Production Editor: Zhong-Yu Guo

INTRODUCTION
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” (Isaac Newton 1675) John of Salisbury
attributed in 1159 the recognition to Bernard of Chartres who expressed that “we see more and farther than
our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and
borne aloft on their gigantic stature.” For reconstructive surgery - despite the brilliant innovations in recent
times - this especially seems to hold true. Plastic surgery can proudly look back into an astonishing past and
also into an even more fascinating future. Truly standing on the shoulder of giants constantly new ideas,
techniques and materials have enriched our daily practice for the cure of our patients.

In addition whatever we do is somehow related to wound healing. Thus, the plastic surgeon is permanently
confronted with all aspects of proper and disturbed wound healing on a daily basis.

In this issue a broad spectrum of topics related to wound healing shows the diversity of our specialty and
highly renowned authors contribute on their experience with special problems of wound healing from
different angles.

SPECTRUM AND DEVELOPMENT OF PLASTIC SURGERY
Plastic surgery is a specialty that dates back to ancient times as far as the descriptions of reconstructions of
amputated noses with a frontal forehead flap mentioned in the Sushruta Samhita as early as 1500 B.C. The
demand for nasal reconstructions (rhinoplasties) can be explained by the fact that amputation of the nose

© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

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