Irene Mathijssen is an Associate Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam and a plastic surgeon at the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive Surgery and Hand Surgery of the Erasmus Medical Centre. She is specialized in surgery for congenital craniofacial malformations – malformations of the head and face – and is leading the research into the treatment of this rare condition. She is the President of the Dutch Society for Plastic Surgery, as well as President of the work force on “Treatment and care for craniosynostosis”. See here for more information about Irene Mathijssen.
Irene briefly took us through the history and developments of plastic surgery, a field that is still relatively young. It started after World War I mainly to help the war victims badly wounded and maimed in battle. After world War II, plastic surgery took another turn because of the high number or burns wounds. But only in the 60s did plastic surgery explore the field of congenital defects; malformations of the head and face.
With a “pourquoi pas?” (why not?) U.S. surgeons started to a operate adults and later also children with such facial malformations. They moved not only skin, but also bone in the skull and face, which was a huge step in plastic surgery. It was presented internationally, after which disappointingly only 10 people were interested. It was too scary for many, so only those few continued to develop the field.
Irene shocked the audience with some real life; for some disturbing before and after images of malformations and accident wounds. However, those who could see through this, could also see the impressive work done by plastic surgeons. Using techniques such as the extraction technique (medal device sticking out of a skull which the parents screw every day to reshape the skull) or breast reconstruction (using excessive fat and skin from the belly as a natural looking and feeling breast) plastic surgeons can fix the physical dysfunction. According to Irene, people who look different are often and undeservingly considered mentally retarded, which does them short.
In 2005 there was even the first transplantation of an entire face, which has happened only 11 times ever since. Next to the huge medical challenges, ethical issues such as who is going to be the donor, will the receiver accept the new and different facial features from another person etc. make it still a very complicated operation. Tissue engineering could be the answer, meaning little pieces of a person’s tissue could be grown in a lab. Still far ahead, but as Irene says: “Plastic surgery is an ongoing quest to restore form and function in the most optimal way we can and to restore quality of life.”
Updated Dec 2: You can now watch the talk here
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