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. The reconstruction techniques are designed to improve both function and appearance and include early closure of the lip at 12 weeks and closure of the palate from 10 to 12 months of age. The Cleft Lip and Palate Clinic meets weekly, and provides multi disciplinary care dealing with primary reconstruction, speech, development, growth abnormalities, intelligence testing, visual and healing assessment and behavior skills. The Johns Hopkins Division of Plastic Surgery in conjunction with the Division of Neurosurgery has a Craniofacial Deformities Center that manages craniofacial deformities.