Lance Armstron is not the only one to lose patience with legislators

Lance Armstrong has been doing a series of articles on CNN and today's centered on his growing disapproval of legislators ducking the cancer issue. I also am a cancer survivor, pancreatic cancer to be exact. Pancreatic cancer kills 31,000 people each year. Each day 1500 Americans die of cancer. Still no word from our political leaders. They don't even recognize it as a problem. They again cut the cancer research budget this year. Hilary Clinton gets headlines for proposing health care changes but so far all she does is rob Peter to pay Paul, meaning she takes from physician's incomes and gives to the insurers. Another victory for the insurance lobby. If it's not the insurance industry, then it's the trial lawyers association, or the industrialists who get the votes. We have lost perhaps 3000 Americans and wounded some 30,000 or more in Iraq. We lose more than that every few weeks to cancer. If the American public will not demand money for cancer research, will not demand the right to pursuit of happiness, nothing will change. Lance Armstrong is incredibly brave and convincing. Americans must support him at the ballot box.

Erasing scars

Some thirty years ago Dr. John Yarborough published a now famous paper in the dermatologic literature in which he described performing dermabrasion on the forehead of a patient whose head had gone through a windshield during an auto accident. The man had extensive scars on his forhead after having been sewn up and Dr. Yarborough performed the procedure 6 weeks after the accident. The scars virtually disappeared. This contrasts with the common advice doctors give to patients to let scars heal for about 1 year before attempting to revise them. This is in direct conflict with the actual evidence. Numerous clinical studies over the past 30 years demonstrate that scar revision is best performed between 6 and 12 weeks after an injury or surgery. This is the period of collagen remodeling and the time in which the body can revise a scar. Since the Yarborough paper numerous methods of intervention have been tried and proven successful when performed early. The most popular is silicone sheets which can be placed over the new scar daily for 6 weeks. Here the theory is the static electricity formed under the sheeting induces the body to remodel its newly formed scar. These products are now available over the counter. Another popular method is laser resurfacing in which a CO2 laser is used to vaporize the surface of the scar in much the same way as dermabrasion does. One of the newest methods involves low level laser therapy and low level LED therapy in which an intense light source at low levels of energy is directed at the scar. There are many studies of wound healing with these lights including those of NASA performed in outer space. Despite the antipathy of most physicians these methods do work and can produce very good results. Lastly, fractionated lasers which are a compromise between laser resurfacing and low level laser therapy have produced excellent results.
The message here is treat new scars early and often and the scars may disappear.

23rd Annual Scientific Meeting of The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery

At the end of the month the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery will host its annual meeting in Phoenix Arizona. I am honored to be the program chair of this meeting along with my co-chairpersons Joseph Niamtu, DMD, and Susan Hughes, MD. This will be the largest meeting ever held by the Academy and is a testament to the advantages of multidisciplinary learning physicians seek and from which patients benefit. At that meeting I will be elected to the Presidency of the Academy and will hold that post for one year. During 2007 the Academy will accept its 2000th member, another testimony to the viability of this relatively new specialty. We are now the largest multidisciplinary society devoted to cosmetic surgery in the world and we are increasingly being asked by our European, Latin, and Asian colleagues to bring them the knowledge we have gained and to participate in their meetings in their host countries. This year I am planning on attending 2 meetings in Europe and one in Dubai and I and the Board of Directors want to welcome our international colleagues to our meetings and workshops.
This year's meeting features Maria Siemionow, MD, PhD , director of Plastic Surgery Research at the Cleveland Clinic and the person likely to perform the first face-transplant surgery in the United States. I have been privileged to hear her speak and her explanation of the immunologic obstacles and how they are overcome are fascinating to all.
I will try to outline the meeting in blogs this coming week and welcome all physicians and paramedical persons who wish to expand their understandings of the scope of cosmetic surgery.