Plastic surgeons as hand surgeons: residents’ perceptions

ABSTRACT

Introduction:

Previous studies have revealed that residents have misconceptions about plastic surgeons as hand surgery specialists. Until now, however, there have been no specific data on this trend in Brazilian scientific literature. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate Brazilian residents’ knowledge and perceptions about the role of plastic surgeons in the field of hand surgery.

Method:

Brazilian residents chose one or two specialists they believed to be experts for eight scenarios related to hand surgery. The responses were categorized as “plastic surgeons”, “without plastic surgeons“, “only plastic surgeons”, “plastic surgeons combined with other specialists”, or “plastic surgeons absent”.

Result:

Responses without plastic surgeons and with plastic surgeons absent were chosen more often than all other responses in all scenarios (p<0.05 for all comparisons). Plastic surgeons were less often recognized as experts compared to orthopedic (six scenarios), general (one scenario), and neurosurgeons (one scenario) (p<0.05 for all comparisons).

Conclusion:

Brazilian residents have limited knowledge and perceptions about hand surgery performed by plastic surgeons.

Keywords:
Brazil; Field; Plastic surgery; Hand; Perceptions; Residents