Plastic surgery is a science regarding the aetiopathogenesis of malformations, diseases and trauma consequences requiring reconstructive treatment as part of surgical treatment in order to reconstruct missing body parts and their functions.

The most important fields of plastic surgery include malformations of the facial skeleton and skin, post-traumatic and post-disease deformations, treatment of burns and their consequences, treatment of skin neoplasms, hand surgery, microsurgery consisting in a transfer of free tissue flaps with microvascular and microneural anastomosis, replantation and transplantation. Plastic surgery also includes aesthetic surgery, the aim of which is to correct appearance that significantly differs from approved aesthetic standards. Based on the issues of plastic surgery mentioned above it can be concluded that its nature is interdisciplinary as it is a surgical speciality including problems associated with general, paediatric, oncological surgery, neurosurgery, orthopaedics trauma surgery, laryngology, ophthalmology and facio-maxillary surgery.

The articles presented in this issue of „Postępy Nauk Medycznych” represent the fields of plastic surgery mentioned above.

Microsurgery has been the most significantly growing field of plastic surgery within the last decade, the proof of which is the establishment of global, regional and national Associations of Microsurgery. The article by Molski presents one of the most difficult therapeutic problems associated with microsurgery, namely avulsion traumas, and the excellent outcomes that might be achieved when microsurgery solutions are used. Treating this speciality as a highly specialist procedure supported by MZ would create conditions where microsurgery would be a standard procedure in the centres of plastic surgery.

Development and improvement of microsurgical techniques are conditioned by the progress in diagnostics and imaging tests of the vascular system. The article by Pietrasik presents imaging tests of the vascular system used currently. As a result of performing microvascular anastomosis using perforators it is possible to preserve axial vessels and prevent functional disturbances in a donor site.

The articles by Dębski and Osuch present another important field of plastic surgery, namely surgical treatment of skin neoplasms. Based on the review of literature regarding surgical treatment of skin neoplasms it can be concluded that on the basis of few prospective articles it is not possible to prepare management standards and therefore further studies in this field are indispensable. The problem is underestimated for at least two reasons: the low mortality rate in the case of basal cell carcinoma and significant functional disturbances present as late as during the final stages of a neoplastic disease. Skin cancer is the most common neoplasm. Costs of its treatment are multiplied when a recurrent neoplastic disease is found and complex reconstructive treatment is required. The articles by Dębski present current views on the aetiopathogenesis, diagnostics and treatment of skin cancer as well as the necessity to conduct prospective studies regarding this field.