Episode 25: Flap Monitoring in Breast Reconstruction and the History of the Guinea Pig Club in Plastic Surgery

<p>Since having DIEP flap, a plastic reconstructive surgery technique performed to rebuild breasts after a mastectomy, I have been fascinated with the field of plastic surgery and topics related specifically to breast reconstruction.</p> <p>I interview <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-pupelis-33a32965/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rob Pupelis</a>, CEO, of Spectros for the first episode of season three of the <a href= "https://diepcjourney.com/category/podcast/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">DiepCJourney podcast</a>. Rob shares the story of his visit to the Queen Victory hospital (<a href= "https://www.qvh.nhs.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">QVH</a>) in England. He was able to visit Queen Victoria while attending the <a href= "https://www.spectros.com/t-statblogaboutrevamp/london-breast-meeting-2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">London Breast Meeting</a> in late 2022. While at the conference, Rob demonstrated the <a href= "https://www.spectros.com/tstat" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">T-Stat tissue oximetry system</a> developed by Spectros. T-Stat is used to monitor flaps in breast reconstruction and in our conversation, we discuss the efficacy of the T-Stat system and why it improves the surgeon’s success rate of flap procedures like the DIEP flap.</p> <p>We begin our conversation with the history of the Queen Victory Hospital treating burn victims during WWII. A surgeon from New Zealand, Archibald McIndoe, came to the Queen Victory hospital via a chance meeting with his cousin, Sir Harold Gillies, often considered the father of plastic surgery. Seeing the severe burn injuries sustained by pilots in WWII, McIndoe saw what his cousin, Sir Harold Gillies did using tube pedicles to rebuild the faces of WWI soldiers and expanded on this technique by treating the soldiers at Queen Victoria. He took healthy, unburnt tissue from other sites on the soldiers to reconstruct burnt tissue.</p> <p>He nurtured this community, and these airmen were considered “guinea pigs” as part of his pioneering work in