LAUSR

This special issue of Surgical and Radiological Anatomy addresses translational research in the field of Anatomy and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. All the original articles presented deal with clinical anatomy and applied research in plastic surgery. The first half of this issue comprises papers, which provide interesting findings in perforators of the fibular and medial sural artery, morphometric properties of the latissimus dorsi muscle, and also essential anatomical and histological data referring to the deep fascia of the neck. All articles in this special issue show data, which had been collected by applying translational research on human bodies. The knowledge of the human topographic anatomy is considered the vital basis of professional medical activity and clinical practitioners postulate that anatomy is the basis of medical knowledge. Modern translational anatomic research is concerned about plastic surgery research. Clinical anatomy and applied research in plastic surgery, as shown in this special issue, deal with a large field of cartography of flaps (surface anatomy), thickness of flaps and perforators (arterial and venous supplies) for both local and free flaps. But, all of this plastic surgery research requires a strong updating of precise topographical knowledge of precise anatomic areas; this knowledge can only be gained from research on human body donors. Human cadavers are discussed as being the medical student ́s “first patient”, but promoters regard them as “more than a model” due to its individuality, while rejecters argue that the cadaver lacks a major property of a patient, the vitality. But, there are several properties classifying the human cadaver as a distinct educational tool among all others: activity, morbidity, variability and dimension (3-dimensional individual). Compared to a simulated patient, a “virtual human” or an anatomic model and a textbook, the human cadaver is a non-vital, variable, 3-dimensional individual with low hazard and high quality haptic experience. Thus, anatomic dissection provides, next to research, a distinct educational method. Dissection itself, practiced on human bodies, has been valued as an indispensable part of medical underand postgraduate education by many clinical anatomists and surgeons. The demands of modern medicine, not only in plastic surgery, but also in medical imaging, place special emphasis on the importance of topography in education and research. Translational anatomy aims to disseminate the knowledge gained in the basic science of anatomy and to apply it to the diagnosis and treatment of human pathology to improve the patients’ (individual) outcome. Teachers of anatomy and surgery must be able to provide the appropriate medical knowledge and skills. Each teacher should therefore have at least a certain amount of postgraduate medical education on human bodies. Competencies, skills, attitudes and strategies to solve morphological problems and a thorough understanding of the anatomic individuality of humans are mandatory prerequisites of professionalism in medicine. Therefore, in this special issue, we also provide an interesting review article, which deals with special techniques of cadaver perfusions, which is important for postgraduate surgical training. Translational anatomy as a basic science improves surgical outcomes by transporting knowledge from “bench-to-bedside”. The second part of this issue presents important results concerning the rectus abdominis muscle innervation providing a surgical implication in DIEP flap harvesting, a practical rerouting of the internal thoracic pedicle, which might be a solution in maxillofacial reconstruction, but also shows an important anatomical variation of the nasal columella and the nostril sill with importance for reconstructive and esthetic surgery. An overview of the different flaps available * Marko Konschake [email protected]