Creativity in plastic surgery as a major contribution to medicine, surgery, and patient care.

All human beings are provided by nature with the ability not only to survive but also to improve the quality of life. A sort of brain plasticity allows us to adapt to new information and circumstances. This also accounts for what is called creativity. Due to its etymological roots in Latin, the word suggests that by means of imagination either a new idea of significant value may be created'' or an already existing and valid one may be improved, transformed, and applied so as to serve more purposes. As the German poet Goethe aptly observed, the birth'' of something new often requires the ``death,'' or the letting go, of old ideas. In the course of history, creativity has brought about changes, innovations and advances in all aspects of human life. Creativity, accompanied by talent, motivation and interest, patience and perseverance, self-confidence and courage, as well as the determination to overcome obstacles, is highly significant also in the field of medicine, in surgery, and, of course, in Plastic Surgery. Specific techniques and methods, invented by creative individuals and/or the research community, have contributed to a history of great innovations in Plastic Surgery and have also proved useful in other surgical institutions. Cooperation beyond the scope of 1 discipline has always been highly important, as it is the patient who is meant to profit from the products of creative minds in these fields. Two examples from my own experience shall serve to illustrate the vast scope of possibilities in the field of Plastic Surgery: cross-face nerve grafting and total reconstruction of a trachea.