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Medscape
26-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Plastic Surgery Career Path: Tips for Med Students
Plastic surgery covers a wide range of subspecialties, all of which focus on restoring physical function or appearance. In addition to reconstructive and cosmetic (or aesthetic) — which represent the two main types of plastic surgery — subspecialties include microsurgery (the reconnection of small blood vessels and nerves in transplant cases and other circumstances) and gender-affirming surgery, among others. The American Board of Plastic Surgery, Inc., reported that as of January 2025, there were approximately 7752 actively practicing plastic surgeons in the United States. The need for more surgeons to fill certain geographic gaps in patient access and meet the rising demand for a range of procedures suggests that a plastic surgery specialty may offer plenty of opportunity for individuals interested in helping people restore their self-confidence and independence. To offer more insight to medical students thinking of pursing a plastic surgery specialty, we turned to Scott Hollenbeck, MD, chair of the Department of Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Virginia Health, Charlottesville, Virginia, and president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Q: When did you decide to specialize in plastic surgery, and what helped you choose that direction? A: I decided pretty late in my training. I was a third-year general surgery resident, and I was exposed to plastic surgery during our breast oncology rotation. There was a plastic surgeon who asked me if I wanted to help them as they did the reconstruction following a mastectomy. I did that on several occasions and found it to be very enjoyable to 'rebuild' a patient rather than deconstruct their body through surgery. One day, he said to me: 'You should be a plastic surgeon. You have the right skills and demeanor and will have a great career.' I saw how grateful his patients were and was convinced it would be a great career for me, and it really has. Q: What is a typical week's schedule for a plastic surgeon, and how is your time divided between surgery, office consultations, and other matters? A: I do a lot of different things beyond surgery and clinical care, but at least that aspect of my job is about 40 hours — or 3 days a week. I usually dedicate one day to my obligations as a department chair and the administrative work associated with that, and one day to running my research efforts. Now, in reality, it's not that defined. These different activities usually blend into each other throughout the week and sometimes into the weekend. Q: How do you balance a patient's expectations with realistic possibilities? A: That is an important point. It's all about informed consent. I never try to 'sell' a patient a surgery. Instead, I try to explain the nature of the procedure and the potential complications and describe a realistic outcome. Sometimes, I will share pictures with them and maybe even connect them with a prior patient who has expressed interest in serving as a resource for future patients. Many patients use social media to get information from other patients from around the country, and this, too, can be helpful in establishing realistic expectations. Q: How has the field of plastic surgery changed in recent years, and what is on the horizon? A: Plastic surgery is always changing. We are known as the specialty for innovation. As such, we often create a new surgical field, which, in many cases, is then adopted by another surgical field. Did you know the first kidney transplant was performed by a plastic surgeon? In fact, Dr Joseph Murray received the Nobel Prize for this achievement. The past few years have seen a lot of work in the use of biomaterials to rebuild the body after trauma or cancer, as well as the use of computers to plan surgeries and robotic machinery to assist the plastic surgeon in performing very delicate procedures. Q: What should students understand about the challenges and rewards of a plastic surgery specialty? A: It is a challenging career, both physically and emotionally, but it is exceptionally rewarding to help patients get through difficult situations. This applies to both reconstructive and aesthetic procedures. The skills we use are related to the transfer and reshaping of tissues to achieve a result that helps the patient in both their form and function.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Common Parasite Rips The Face From Your Cells to Wear as a Disguise
New research has shown how the parasitic amoeba Entamoeba histolytica takes bites from your cells to use as a disguise, hiding them from the immune system. Entering the body via contaminated food or water, most infections from the parasite cause diarrhea, if any symptoms at all. In particularly bad cases, the amoeba can spread via the bloodstream to other vital organs, where it can cause serious problems. If the infection reaches the liver, for instance, the amoebic abscesses it creates can be fatal, causing complications that claim the lives of almost 70,000 people each year. Exactly how this tiny monster wreaks such havoc in its host was largely unknown, until microbiologist Katherine Ralston – currently at the University of California Davis, but back then posted at the University of Virginia – investigated the amoeba more closely in 2011. The going theory was that E. histolytica injected a poison into its victim cells. But Ralston saw something very different going on through her microscope. E. histolytica was taking what looked like actual bites out of human cells. "To devise new therapies or vaccines, you really need to know how E. histolytica damages tissue," Ralston says. "You could see little parts of the human cell being broken off." Stranger still, the amoeba seemed satisfied with just a few chomps from each cell's membrane before moving on to its next victim, leaving in its wake a slew of half-chewed cells with cytoplasms oozing from their puncture wounds. "It can kill anything you throw at it, any kind of human cell," Ralston says. It can even take a chomp out of the white blood cells that are meant to swallow such intruders. Now, Ralston and her colleagues Maura Ruyechan and Wesley Huang have discovered this seemingly wasteful habit actually allows E. histolytica to gather outer membrane proteins from the human cells, which it proceeds to arrange on the surface of its own body for protection against defences in the blood. Surprisingly, this disguise doesn't just protect it from human immune 'guards': it works on immune responses present in the blood of other species, too. "It has become clear that amoebae kill human cells by performing cell nibbling, known as trogocytosis," the authors write. "After performing trogocytosis, amoebae display human proteins on their own surface and are resistant to lysis [rupture] by human serum [a component of blood]." This molecular disguise prevents our immune system from launching an attack on the amoeba by presenting chemical tags that identify it as safe, a bit like stealing the ID off a security guard. When E. histolytica dons the human proteins CD46 and CD55, it can safely scoot past the 'complement proteins' tasked with tracking down and destroying foreign cells. This allows it to continue chomping away, forming abscesses full of liquified cells in the organs it inhabits. Intriguingly, the team conducted an experiment in which they allowed the amoeba to collect material from human cells before exposing the 'disguised' parasites to mouse blood serum. "Although mice are not a natural host of E. histolytica, experimental infection of mice with amoebae mimics many aspects of the human infection, ranging from immune responses to the host genetic determinants of susceptibility to infection," the authors write. Its camouflage was effective despite originating from an entirely different species, reflecting similarities between human and mouse complement protein security systems. This knowledge will allow the researchers to further investigate treatments and vaccines for the amoeba using mouse models, before proceeding to human trials. "Science is a process of building," Ralston says. "You have to build one tool upon another, until you're finally ready to discover new treatments." This research has not yet been peer-reviewed, but it is available as a pre-print in bioRxiv. Scientists '3D Print' Material Deep Inside The Body Using Ultrasound The Secret to Happiness Seems to Depend Upon You, Study Finds Drinking Alcohol Before Hitting The Sauna Could Be a Deadly Combo
Washington Post
13-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Federal property will go to ROTC instead of preschool, Ed. Department says
The Education Department said late last month that it would give a 14-acre property from a shuttered federal agency to Charlottesville public schools, which the superintendent called 'a once-in-a-generation opportunity' to support preschoolers and disabled students. A week and a half later, though, federal officials said they had changed their mind and would instead give it to the University of Virginia.
