title: Tissue engineering.
abstract: Tissue engineering will potentially change the practice of plastic surgery more than any other clinical specialty. It is an interdisciplinary field that promises new methods of tissue repair. There has been more than $3.5 billion invested in this field since 1990. Relevant areas of progress include advanced computing, biomaterials, cell technology, growth factor fabrication and delivery, and gene manipulation. Beneficial clinical techniques will emerge from continued investigation in each of these areas. Techniques that are developed must be scaled up to industry with products cleared by regulatory agencies and acceptable to clinicians and patients. A goal of tissue engineering is to change clinical practice, yielding improved patient outcomes and lower costs of care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Box 443, Houston, TX 77030, USA. mmiller@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Charles W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Patrick
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D006801:Humans; D013518:Surgery, Plastic; D023822:Tissue Engineering
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials