Roxanne Guy and Stephen M. Milner are the two faces of plastic surgery.
In Melbourne, Fla., Guy performs tummy tucks, face-lifts, Botox and breast augmentations. Miller, who heads the burn unit at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, honed his skills as a plastic surgeon with the British army in the first Persian Gulf war.
They will meet with colleagues from around the country in Baltimore this weekend as the American Society of Plastic Surgeons begins its five-day annual convention here. The conference, which formally opens today at the Convention Center, is expected to attract 6,000 physicians, technical experts and exhibitors.
Few specialists probe the extremes of medicine as plastic surgeons do. Their patients range from the disfigured victims of accidents, fires and war -- who are surviving in increasing numbers -- to a generation of baby boomers searching for lost youth as they near retirement.
So lectures and panel discussions will focus on subjects as diverse as laser face-lifts, liposuction, caring for wounded veterans and new carpal tunnel surgery that can be performed while patients are awake.
"It's an opportunity to hear from experts from all over the world about the latest in any number of areas," said Dr. Michele Shermak, a plastic surgeon at Bayview who practices cosmetic and reconstructive surgery.
This year's attendees have plenty to talk about. Modern trauma surgery has created new demands on plastic surgeons, whose patients might have been seriously injured in car crashes, fires or military combat. "Over the last 20 years or so, massive strides have been made on survival rates, but that's presenting new challenges," said Milner, who was a lieutenant colonel in the British army before he came to Hopkins in 2004.
Doctors, for example, have been saving more burn victims since the 1970s, when they began performing immediate skin grafts, rather than waiting for burned skin to separate by itself. Better antibiotics also have prevented deaths from infections, he said.
These days, research is focused on improving those grafting techniques. "If we can get someone to where they look reasonable and they can function, that can be a big step," Milner said.
But most topics at this year's conference focus on a generation of baby boomers worried about aging faces and other body parts that sag, wrinkle and can even begin to flap. Hence topics such as "Silicon Implants: Where Do We Go From Here?"
