Nasal Soft Tissue Reconstruction

James F. Thornton, MD, FACS

In my last decade of clinical practice, I have been fortunate enough to focus on exactly what I have wanted to do clinically, and that is soft tissue facial reconstruction. I am fortunate to have a large patient volume in this area. I have come to realize what a surgeon really strives for in clinical practice is not just excellence, but predictability and the ability to deliver expected results for patients. This allows for an efficient predictable practice that is valuable to the surgeon, the patient, and the referring doctors. Many elements of surgery go into excellence and predictability. This includes a well-organized systems approach to medicine, wise judicious applications of surgical techniques, and most importantly fast, relatively atraumatic surgical techniques. The delivery of excellent results with minimal morbidity of the patient and reasonable use of resources I think will become increasingly valuable as medical care becomes more systems based and a premium is placed on quality of results in relationship to cost.

Every single surgical technique presented in this issue of Seminars is based on hundreds of clinical cases and is not designed to be showcased with flashy results, but rather bread-and-butter results that can be delivered by any adept surgeon. I feel very fortunate to be allowed to be a clinical editor for a second edition of Seminars and feel that the techniques illustrated in this journal, as well as a reliance on Dr. Menick's excellent textbook on nasal reconstructive surgery, will go a long way toward the management of the majority of nasal surgical defects seen by practicing surgeons.