Plastic Surgery Photographic Puns
"Cosmetic Surgery" Synthes 1 mm titanium plates and screws used for facial fractures on Channel:
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These cosmetics were "repaired" with the plates and screws. 1 mm plates and screws were developed to repair fractures under very thin skin. The small size give a plastic surgery result to facial fractures and lessen the deforming effect of the older larger plates. These small reconstructive tools are used on some orbital and nasal fractures. The plates come in many configurations, shapes and sizes to accommodate the many different shapes and interrelationships of the fracture fragments.
...all
the king's horses and
all of the king's men...
These are micro plates normally used in facial fractures. This robin's egg (already used) was "repaired" with the plates and screws. The story behind the photograph is interesting. The nest came from one of the OR nurses back yard. It had fallen down. The egg shells were a poor pale blue. Other plastic surgery friends from Washington D.C. and St. Louis helped out with some very pretty blue "used" eggs. The image was used by Howmedica one of the plate manufacturers in their advertising.
I embarked on this project to express my feeling of working on Humpty Dumpty as I repair the many fragments of the more severe facial fractures. To reconstruct a bad facial fracture, we need to repair facial buttresses, the stress areas that support the facial features. Such plates and screws permit a more rigid reconstruction. The tiny size of these items require some magnification for the plastic surgery and I usually use my magnifying loupes.
My
Smallest Facial Laceration
This is a cover for Ethicon, a manufacturer of suture. It features "My Smallest Facial Laceration." I made a small cut under the microscope on the cheek repaired the cheek with 10-0 suture. This is the normal size of suture we use to repair small blood vessels. The arteries and veins in the adult finger are about 1 - 1.2 mm in diameter and would be about the right size for this tiny repair. Microsuture is so fine that it floats on the heat of my hands under the microscope. The needle wire diameter is 70 microns, small enough to pass into a human hair.
