They are specific experts in the management of the contaminated wound as well as experts in achieving wound closure. They also perform other grafts such as bone grafting, cartilage grafting, fascia and dermis grafting, vessel grafting, fat grafting and hair transplantation. Plastic and reconstructive surgeons have long been experts in management of the skin and subcutaneous tissues. They manage aesthetic problems and benign and malignant tumors of the skin and subcutaneous tissues. Benign tumors include things like moles, cysts, keratoses and lipomas .
Malignant tumors are most commonly basal cell skin cancer, squamous cell skin cancer and melanoma .
The reconstruction of these tumors depends on their area, extent, and potential to spread to other areas such as lymph nodes and the blood stream. Generally, an excision of the primary tumor is performed with a reconstructive technique developed to achieve the most appropriate cosmetic result. Plastic surgeons deal with clefts of the lip and palate . Both lip and palate clefts may be either unilateral or bilateral. The incidence of cleft lip is about 1 in 1,000 in this country and of cleft palate is about 1 in 2,000 births.