An Award to Nurture the Leaders: APSI-Raja Sabapathy Leadership Award (Supported by Dr. Somes Guha).

Leadership for any professional society needs visionary leaders, who are adequately motivated to assume the role. The Association of Plastic Surgeons of India (APSI) has instituted APSI-Raja Sabapathy Leadership Award (supported by Dr. Somes Guha) in 2019 to identify and nurture members with the potential to take up the leadership for the association in the future.

Novel expansion techniques for skin grafts.

The quest for skin expansion is not restricted to cover a large area alone, but to produce acceptable uniform surfaces, robust engraftment to withstand mechanical shear and infection, with a minimal donor morbidity. Ease of the technique, shorter healing period and reproducible results are essential parameters to adopt novel techniques. Significant advances seen in four fronts of autologous grafting are: (1) Dermal-epidermal graft expansion techniques, (2) epidermal graft harvests technique, (3) melanocyte-rich basal cell therapy for vitiligo and (4) robust and faster autologous cell cultures.

Limb salvage surgery.

The threat of lower limb loss is seen commonly in severe crush injury, cancer ablation, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease and neuropathy. The primary goal of limb salvage is to restore and maintain stability and ambulation. Reconstructive strategies differ in each condition such as: Meticulous debridement and early coverage in trauma, replacing lost functional units in cancer ablation, improving vascularity in ischaemic leg and providing stable walking surface for trophic ulcer.