A first for Plastic Surgery, the American Board of Plastic Surgery, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery: 20 evidence-based maintenance of certification articles, beginning with this issue.
Authors: D. Lalonde; Rod J. Rohrich
Year: 2010

Beginning in December of 2010, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is pleased to publish the first 10 of 20 evidence-based review articles on the 20 topics required for American Board of Plastic Surgery Maintenance of Certification. This is the second round of 20 Maintenance of Certification articles to come out in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery; the first round was published in early 2008. The first 10 new articles are on the following: (1) breast augmentation/ augmentation mammaplasty, (2) breast reduction, (3) breast reconstruction, (4) carpal tunnel, (5) abdominoplasty, (6) blepharoplasty, (7) cleft palate, (8) face lift, (9) metacarpal fractures, and (10) Dupuytren contracture. This is the first time in the history of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery that a series of review articles covering some of the most common plastic surgery procedures will be evidence based. Each of these articles has been carefully peer reviewed by a large panel of the Journal’s Editorial Board members and ad hoc reviewers, and then also by American Society of Plastic Surgeons staff member Jennifer Swanson, B.S., M.Ed., who provided extensive project management, evidence-based medicine advice, and editorial support. In addition, we gratefully acknowledge American Society of Plastic Surgeons staff member Karie O’Connor, M.P.H., for literature searches, and Victoria Briones Chiongbian, Ph.D., and Michelle Secic, M.S., of Secic Statistical Consulting, Inc., for critical appraisal of studies included in these reviews. This team of evidence-based experts dispassionately analyzed most of the references in each article to give you an unbiased view of the level of evidence that the articles provide. For example, in the breast augmentation Maintenance of Certification article by Thorne, the following sentence appears: “Romundstad et al. demonstrated that methylprednisolone 125 mg intravenously given before breast augmentation had analgesic sparing effects compared with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and had the additional benefit of reducing nausea, vomiting, and fatigue (Therapy: Level I, II Evidence).”1,2 You as the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery reader now will be able to believe a Level 1 Evidence (prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial) or Level II Evidence (prospective, nonrandomized, nonblinded comparison of two techniques) article much more readily and take it to your practice with much more confidence than if you had just read yet another much less valid article of a case series (Level IV Evidence) of someone reviewing 300 charts of patients who received steroids. Until now, both readers of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and plastic surgeons as a group have experienced many days when someone stands at the front of a room and says: “We have six studies that say this and six studies that say that” and we leave confused. In 2010, we are champiFrom the Division of Plastic Surgery, Dalhousie University, and the Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Received for publication August 13, 2010; accepted August 20, 2010. Copyright ©2010 by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons