Grants Funded
Grant applicants for the 2024 cycle requested a total of nearly $3 million dollars. The PSF Study Section Subcommittees of Basic & Translational Research and Clinical Research evaluated more than 100 grant applications on the following topics:
The PSF awarded research grants totaling over $650,000 dollars to support more than 20 plastic surgery research proposals.
ASPS/PSF leadership is committed to continuing to provide high levels of investigator-initiated research support to ensure that plastic surgeons have the needed research resources to be pioneers and innovators in advancing the practice of medicine.
Research Abstracts
Search The PSF database to have easy access to full-text grant abstracts from past PSF-funded research projects 2003 to present. All abstracts are the work of the Principal Investigators and were retrieved from their PSF grant applications. Several different filters may be applied to locate abstracts specific to a particular focus area or PSF funding mechanism.
Facial Subunits for Composite Tissue Transplantation
David Mathes MD
2008
University of Washington
Basic Research Grant
Technology Based
This proposed study is to define the neurovascular anatomy and specific technical issues for the harvest of functional composite flaps of the eyelid, nose, ear and upper and lower lips, as single, vascularized facial subunits. The facial subunits, which include the specialized tissues that makes up the ear, eyelid, nose, cheek, and upper and lower lips serves to define topographic areas with characteristic skin qualities, outlines, and shape. The subunit approach to facial reconstruction has been a useful principle to follow for concealing scars, maintaining skin qualities, and restoring symmetry. While microvascular free flaps can often provide tissue replacement for large defects, it has been less successful in restoring complex, specialized tissues such as the upper and lower lip. Therefore, the reconstruction of facial subunits that have lost tissues with specialized functions, such as the eyelid, continues to be an unsolved challenge. The ability to reconstruct these specialized tissues with the exact subunit from cadaveric sources would revolutionize the field of reconstructive surgery. Trauma, especially bums, to the face often leads to the loss of critical specialized structures such as the eyelids, lips, ears and nose .. Composite tissue transplantation of specialized subunits would allow for the transfer of tissues that could closely match the dimensions, texture, thickness, and function of any given facial defect. A near-normal facial appearance could be achieved in a single stage without any donor-site morbidity. The recent clinical transplants in France and China highlight the possible future use of these specialized transplants. The French patient had lost the upper and lower lips as well as much of the nose. These complicated structures were reconstructed in a single stage with no donor site issues. While there may be patients that require transplantation of the entire face, the majority of patients that will benefit from this CTA will need a segmental composite transplant. The goal of this study is to define the anatomic and technical issues surrounding these transplants. Preliminary studies that we have conducted show that it may be possible to raise a functional composite eyelid flap based on the transverse facial arterial system. Further study is needed to confirm these initial observations and show that such a flap can be harvested on a consistent basis.
