Five years have elapsed since the publication of the first edition of Plastic Surgery: Facts, a text that essentially consolidated my preparation for the FRCS(Plast) examination in 1999. Since then I have been gratified and encouraged by the feedback that I have received from many trainees in plastic surgery who have found the book useful as part of their own structured revision for examinations or simply as a source of information in their training.

The second edition of Plastic Surgery: Facts updates much of the plastic surgery and related literature over the past 5 years. Some areas have developed rapidly, while others have changed little. Plastic surgery encompasses many different disciplines under one umbrella and at times it would seem that future disintegration into a number of factions allied to other surgical specialties is inevitable. However, it is precisely this broad spectrum of principles and techniques that is fundamental to our cohesion and versatility as plastic surgeons and this remains our greatest strength.

In each chapter there are new citations that have been selected either for their educational value or scientific importance but, perhaps predictably, my own sub-specialty interests have received particular attention. Consequently, the sections on malignant melanoma and soft tissue sarcoma have expanded to reflect my own greater understanding of these areas.

Future editions of the book are likely to increasingly rely upon contributions from other authors and my intention is that Plastic Surgery: Facts will propagate as a text written by trainees for trainees.