Plastic surgery in the time of Coronavirus in Italy. Maybe we should say: “Thanks Darwin we are Plastic Surgeons!”

Marcasciano, Marco; Kaciulyte, Juste; Mori, Francesco L.R.; Lo Torto, Federico; Ribuffo, Diego; Casella, Donato

Nowadays, while stopping the pandemic remains mandatory, other serious and life-impacting diseases affect the population and plastic surgeons, among others, play a crucial role in guaranteeing a proper treatment. Elia et al. paper “Plastic Surgery in the time of Coronavirus in Italy. Can we really say “Thanks God we are plastic surgeons?”” inspired the authors to report their experience as plastic surgeons working in a newborn multidisciplinary Oncologic and Reconstructive Breast Surgery Departments during the Covid-19 pandemic. We confronted the number of surgical procedures performed from March 9th to May 18th 2020 with the trends registered before and after the pandemic onset. Despite a slight variation of non-deferrable surgical activity, no statistically significant differences were evidenced among these periods. Plastic surgery is a versatile specialty, playing key role in oncologic surgery as well. In the battle against breast cancer during COVID-19, plastic surgeons answered to the call of duty. The role of our discipline in the Breast Units evolved, increasing in importance along with the concept of the “aesthetic cancer cure” and “oncoplastic surgery”. The Covid-19 disaster pushed us all to broaden our competences reconsidering our involvement in patients care, remarking how resilience is mandatory to face the new challenges of a constantly developing environment. In the Darwin's Origin of Species, it is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. Especially in such hazardous times, maybe we should say: “Thanks Darwin we are Plastic Surgeons!”