title: Advances and Innovations in Microsurgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  After reading this article, the participant should be able to: 1. summarize the evolution of perforator, chimeric, and free style flaps; 2. define and give examples of supermicrosurgery as well as understand its application in treatment of lymphedema; and 3. appreciate the development and advancements of composite tissue allotransplantation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although microsurgery may seem like a highly specialized niche within plastic surgery, it is more than just a discipline that focuses on small anastomoses. It is a tool and a way of thinking that allows us to embody the true tenets of plastic surgery, as quoted by Tagliocozzi. What began as a challenge of returning amputated tissue to the body and achieving wound closure has evolved into a refinement of technique and change in philosophy that empowers the plastic surgeon to work creatively to "restore, rebuild, and make whole."
authors: Chicago, Ill.|From the Section of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, The University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences.
authors: Julie E
authors: JE
authors: Park
authors: Chicago, Ill.|From the Section of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, The University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences.
authors: David W
authors: DW
authors: Chang
mesh_terms: D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008209:Lymphedema / Q000266:history / Q000601:surgery; D008866:Microsurgery / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods; D013524:Surgical Flaps / Q000266:history*; D063986:Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation / Q000266:history / Q000379:methods