Dr. Andrew Elkwood: Not Your Average Plastic Surgeon

Last year, our practice announced the release of a collaborative text, Rehabilitative Surgery: A Comprehensive Text for an Emerging Field, edited by Andrew I. Elkwood, MD, FACS, and Matthew Kaufman, MD, FACS, both of whom have authored a number of the book’s chapters. This textbook, the first of its type, defines the field of rehabilitative surgery. It approaches the subject from a multidisciplinary perspective, integrating orthopedic, plastic, neuro, general, and otolaryngological surgery.

As an introduction to the new field of rehabilitative surgery, the text offers a unique perspective combining state-of-the-art surgeries from multiple surgical specialties for the treatment of the paralyzed or severely neurologically impaired patient. The approach envisions the big picture of understanding, coordinating, and providing treatments to chronically impaired patients, seeking to create opportunities that profoundly change their everyday lives and functional status.

Dr. Andrew Elkwood, the specialty’s innovator, contributed to a number of chapters, providing readers with insight gathered from his vast clinical experience. His areas of focus in this text include his approach to upper and lower extremity paralysis, the importance of proper diagnosis, and surgical planning. Dr. Elkwood states, “three basic issues to be addressed are motion, sensibility, and pain.” Dr. Elkwood also explains that in the lower extremity overall, the ability to bear weight is the key factor in any reconstruction. Additionally, Dr. Elkwood provides insight into some of the compression syndromes he treats, such as Pudendal Neuralgia and Piriformis Syndrome.

According to Dr. Andrew I. Elkwood, “We have created this volume based on our nearly two decades of unique experience in the field of treating patients from around the country and all over the world- with the unique approach of rehabilitative surgery. We believe these creative solutions can revolutionize care in an underserved population.”

Rehabilitative Surgery: A Comprehensive Text for an Emerging Field, published by Springer International Publishing AG, includes 27 chapters by over 50 experts, including many of the other reconstructive surgeons from The Institute for Advanced Reconstruction.