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Open Access
CC BY-NC 4.0 · Arch Plast Surg 2016; 43(02): 145-152
DOI: 10.5999/aps.2016.43.2.145
Original Article

Fifty Years of Innovation in Plastic Surgery

Authors

  • Richard M Kwasnicki

    Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology, Imperial College London, London, UK

  • Archie Hughes-Hallett

    Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology, Imperial College London, London, UK

  • Hani J Marcus

    Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology, Imperial College London, London, UK

  • Guang-Zhong Yang

    Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology, Imperial College London, London, UK

  • Ara Darzi

    Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology, Imperial College London, London, UK

  • Shehan Hettiaratchy

    Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology, Imperial College London, London, UK
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Background Innovation has molded the current landscape of plastic surgery. However, documentation of this process only exists scattered throughout the literature as individual articles. The few attempts made to profile innovation in plastic surgery have been narrative, and therefore qualitative and inherently biased. Through the implementation of a novel innovation metric, this work aims to identify and characterise the most prevalent innovations in plastic surgery over the last 50 years.

Methods Patents and publications related to plastic surgery (1960 to 2010) were retrieved from patent and MEDLINE databases, respectively. The most active patent codes were identified and grouped into technology areas, which were subsequently plotted graphically against publication data. Expert-derived technologies outside of the top performing patents areas were additionally explored.

Results Between 1960 and 2010, 4,651 patents and 43,118 publications related to plastic surgery were identified. The most active patent codes were grouped under reconstructive prostheses, implants, instruments, non-invasive techniques, and tissue engineering. Of these areas and other expert-derived technologies, those currently undergoing growth include surgical instruments, implants, non-invasive practices, transplantation and breast surgery. Innovations related to microvascular surgery, liposuction, tissue engineering, lasers and prostheses have all plateaued.

Conclusions The application of a novel metric for evaluating innovation quantitatively outlines the natural history of technologies fundamental to the evolution of plastic surgery. Analysis of current innovation trends provides some insight into which technology domains are the most active.

Keywords

Surgery, plastic - Technology - Diffusion of innovation - History


Publication History

Received: 25 August 2015

Accepted: 27 January 2016

Article published online:
20 April 2022

© 2016. The Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, permitting unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

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