Although reconstructive surgery may seem more modern, reconstructive surgery has been around for decades repairing the lives of individuals. In an article discussing the background and history of reconstructive surgery, it states procedures date back as early as the 1800’s in order to help wounded soldiers in battle. Physicians often performed ear-lobe reattachment and nose reparation surgeries for wounded soldiers (Petechuk para 2). Unbeknownst to the public, reconstructive surgery began repairing severed and damaged body parts decades ago. Today, surgeons are able to perform more complex reattachment surgeries in a safer environment with a higher success rate. Retinal detachment is a condition affecting the eyeball, which has the ability to cause vision loss or even blindness in an individual. Through new and improved surgical techniques, doctors are able to improve vision in a safer and more efficient way. In a technique called scleral buckling, a silicone piece is inserted next to the eye in order to restore vision and repair the retina at a 90 percent success rate (“New Approaches” para 1-5). Based on past history, doctors have now been able to evolve the realm of reconstructive attachment surgery in order to improve and ensure higher safety rate of patients. Although people …show more content…
Functionality of impaired body parts have the potential to be improved through means of reconstructive surgery. Cleft palates and cleft lips are a rare birth abnormality affecting one in seven hundred births in the nation. Cleft palates and cleft lips come as the result failed fusion of the roof of the mouth and side of the lip during pregnancy. Often times babies can end up with a bilateral complete cleft in which both sides of the lips extend fully into the nose. Although babies are still considered healthy with cleft lips and cleft palates, the abnormalities can cause frequent problems parents must work around while raising the child. Common complications of a cleft lip and/or palate include: feeding difficulties, speech complications, dental problems, ear infections and hearing loss (“Cleft Lip” para 1-7). Although, children are still able to function with a cleft palate and cleft lip, functionality is restrained and causes difficulty while performing daily tasks. Children able to receive surgical solutions to these types of abnormalities are not only seeking cosmetic revision but a better life in the end. A child directly affected by cleft lip and cleft palate defect, Ryan Huff, was diagnosed before he was even born. Ryan was forced to undergo a total of three surgeries in order to repair his cleft lip and plate.