Book excerpt: Path-Breaking Work in Plastic and Reconstructive Microsurgery by Dr. Doina Dumitrescu-Ionescu was reviewed by David Soutar for The Royal College of Surgeons of England: “This is a refreshingly original and unusual text. It is a testament to the life work of the author and her struggle to develop clinical microsurgery in Rumania. It takes the reader on a journey starting with learning the basic techniques of microsurgery, laboratory and experimental research, teaching and training. It then progresses to the building of an infrastructure for development and clinical practice, the maintenance of meticulous records and the evaluation of results. As such, the book is a very personal account written in an informal style so that the reader can follow the author’s own development and experience. “The format is unusual beginning with the author’s philosophy for developing reconstructive microsurgery. It then covers personal techniques developed for peripheral techniques developed for peripheral nerve repairs and microvascular anastomosis. It is clear from early on in this book that the author’s main interest lies in the management of peripheral nerves, particularly in the limbs. There is a section on reconstructive microsurgery of the brachial plexus following trauma and a section on limb replantation.” Says the author, “The reconstructive microsurgery experience helped me to modernize reparative plastic surgery in Romania in reconstructive plastic surgery and reconstructive microsurgery by radically changing the surgical approach.” This allowed also for new procedures in Dupuytren’s Disease, Volkmann, and post-burn contractures approach, “revolutionizing everything that was repair surgery of any extremity, cephalic, superior, inferior, but also the extension of reconstructions in the large defects of suprascheletal soft parts.”