The advance in reconstructive surgery procedures throughout the years has surpassed what many reconstructive surgeons even thought was possible. About six million people across the United States are benefiting from advances in reconstructive surgery procedures that were unimaginable to many just a decade earlier.

Microsurgery has allowed major advancement in reconstructive surgery procedures. First experimented with in the 1950s with severed fingers, microsurgery was further developed in the 1980s. In the 80s, researchers began to perfect optics and the tools allowing reconstructive surgeons to see and stitch together thread-thin vessels. Reconstructive surgery procedures have allowed patients of all ages and backgrounds to cosmetically fix birth defects, accident injuries, developmental abnormalities, infection, disease and other things that have left a person physically disfigured.

Reconstructive surgery procedures differ from cosmetic surgery procedures because it is usually performed to improve functioning or to achieve a "normal"? appearance. When cosmetic surgery is performed, the patient already has normal features that they wish to alter and aesthetically enhance to fit their personal desires. The two main groups of people that undergo reconstructive surgery procedures are affected by congenital deformities or acquired deformities after suffering an accident, infection or disease.

For patients suffering from diseases like cancer, battling the illness can be difficult to overcome, but after treatment for survival, some patients are left with visible and physically crippling results. Reconstructive surgeons understand more about how tissue lives and receives blood, which will further improve reconstructive surgery procedure techniques. The advances in reconstructive surgery procedures are exciting, but researchers hope the road to discovery reaches even further yet.

In the future, patients may be able to undergo reconstructive surgery procedures to transplant entire hands or arms, just as a transplanted organ is performed today. The ability to use skin grafts, tissue expansion, microsurgery, laser surgery, as well as other techniques has allowed reconstructive surgeons to transform patients. While the improvements are often for achieving a normal appearance, although some also help with more effective functioning, reconstructive surgery procedures has the ability to transform a person's social life and overall happiness.

Regardless of the severity of the deformities, some patients are so self-conscious or worried about how they look that they are unable to enjoy everyday activities and will purposefully stay uninvolved with activities and hobbies. For children, they can endure a lot of taunting and name-calling that can be traumatic. The ability to undergo reconstructive surgery procedures has been able to provide a way for people to live more enjoyable lives and provide hope.