Since the development of microsurgical tech￾niques and discovery of consistently repeated
vascular patterns of tissues, the face of recon￾structive surgery, or rather the face of surgery
as a whole, has totally changed. Any established
training program in plastic and reconstructive
surgery devotes, in parallel to clinical work, a
considerable amount of time to revisiting spe￾cific nuances in the anatomy laboratory, as well
as to mastering microsurgical techniques, both
being integrated fundaments, upon which the
practice of plastic surgery is built. Anatomical
dissections for learning specific surgical tech￾niques, especially as pertinent to the harvesting
of flaps, are best accomplished by referring to a
written and illustrated resource kept readily
open on a book rack there and then, as one pro￾ceeds with the dissection.
A textbook is a tool with an intentional pur￾pose and utility. Even when covering the same
topic, two books may have a completely differ￾ent scope and focus. There are a variety of
excellent written resources on reconstructive
surgery using flaps, which compete and com￾plement each other as regards the fundus of sci￾entific material they command. Depending
upon the requirements of the reader, one re￾source may be of great value, while another
may be of little interest.

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