RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY

Reconstructive surgery encompasses any procedure that restores a damaged or abnormal part of the anatomy to its prior state or to as normal as possible. This type of surgery is primarily the domain of a plastic surgeon. Through the years, the field of reconstructive surgery has added to our knowledge of anatomy, tissue types and how they interact with one another. In fact, it is this experience with reconstructive surgery that has allowed the specialty of cosmetic surgery to develop. Prof Kairinos is passionate about the field of reconstructive surgery and this forms about 70% of his workload, predominantly in the form of skin cancer surgery and reconstruction. Reconstructive procedures can be as minor as removing a mole to large microsurgical tissue transfer operations for reconstruction following cancer surgery or trauma.

Prof Kairinos also has an interest in complex, chronic wounds, which have typically been present for many months, sometimes years, and have failed to heal with numerous prior treatment methodologies. He has frequently managed to successfully treated wounds which have been present for longer than one year and these wounds have remained closed to date. He believes a holistic multidisciplinary approach is necessary for these patients and that attention to detail is the key to a successful outcome. In this regard, he pioneered South Africa’s first true multidisciplinary wound care centre (Cape Advanced Wound Care Centre), which is based at the Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital. He is also the Editor in Chief of Wound Healing Southern Africa(WHSA), South Africa’s only wound journal and the mouth-piece of the Wound Healing Association of Southern Africa (WHASA).