Insights Into Facial Surgery Trends in the United States in the Setting of Gender Dysphoria: A National Analysis From 2012 to 2019.

Introduction: Over the past decade, there has been an improvement in access to gender-affirming surgical care for the transgender population. Even with improvements, this population continues with a high level of inequity among access to specialized surgical care. While multiple studies have previously focused on trends among top and bottom surgery, this study provides trends specifically among facial gender affirmation surgery (FGAS) within the United States.

Class in Session: Analysis of GPT-4-created Plastic Surgery In-service Examination Questions.

Background: The Plastic Surgery In-Service Training Examination (PSITE) remains a critical milestone in residency training. Successful preparation requires extensive studying during an individual's residency. This study focuses on the capacity of Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4 (GPT-4) to generate PSITE practice questions.

Unveiling the Hidden Discrepancies Between Medicare Physician Reimbursement Rates and Inflation Across Different Surgical Specialties.

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the trends of Medicare physician reimbursement from 2011 to 2021 and compare the rates across different surgical specialties.

Background: Knowledge of Medicare is essential because of its significant contribution in physician reimbursements. Previous studies across surgical specialties have demonstrated that Medicare, despite keeping up with inflation in some areas, has remained flat when accounting for physician reimbursement.

Comparing Trends in Medicare Reimbursement and Inflation within Plastic Surgery Subspecialties.

Background: Over the past decade across multiple surgical specialties, Medicare reimbursement rates have remained stagnant, failing to keep pace with inflation. An internal comparison of subspecialties within plastic surgery has not yet been attempted. The goal of this study was to investigate the trends in reimbursement from 2010 to 2020 and compare across the subspecialties of plastic surgery.

Apigenin improves cytotoxicity of antiretroviral drugs against HTLV-1 infected cells through the modulation of AhR signaling.

Objectives: HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is a neuroinflammatory autoimmune disease characterized by high levels of infected immortalized T cells in circulation, which makes it difficult for antiretroviral (ART) drugs to work effectively. In previous studies, we established that Apigenin, a flavonoid, can exert immunomodulatory effects to reduce neuroinflammation. Flavonoids are natural ligands for the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), which is a ligand activated endogenous receptor involved in the xenobiotic response.

The Cost of Doing Business: An Appraisal of Relative Value Units in Plastic Surgery and Other Surgical Subspecialties.

Background: The relationship between procedural complexity and relative value units (RVUs) awarded has been studied within some specialties, but it has not yet been compared across different surgical disciplines. This study aims to analyze the association of RVUs with operative time as a surrogate for complexity across surgical specialties, with a focus on plastic surgery.

Methods: A retrospective review of surgical cases was conducted with the 2019 National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database.