Pediatric Plastic Surgery - Boston Children's Hospital

We are proud to welcome you to our department—one of the largest and most experienced pediatric plastic and oral surgery centers anywhere in the world, with ten dedicated subspecialty programs.

Every year, we see more than 16,000 children of all ages and with all different types of conditions: those that are present at birth, those acquired later in life, the most common and the most rare and complex.

But the care we provide goes well beyond the numbers. We offer treatments that address each child's individual needs, and we include families in every step of the treatment process.

Here at Boston Children's, plastic and oral surgery is about more than medical and surgical care: It's also about providing lasting emotional and educational support and creating the best possible future for every child and family.

Innovative care

Boston Children's Department of Plastic and Oral Surgery uses the most sophisticated tools and technologies to enhance care for all patients.

Here are some of the innovations that set us apart:

Reconstructive surgical procedures for cleft lip/cleft palate and other craniofacial anomalies
Microsurgery for hand anomalies
One of the world's only facial reanimation programs for children with facial nerve palsy and paralysis
A unique combination of imaging technologies that allows patients to see what they will look like after orthognathic surgery

The bottom line: Our state-of-the-art approach is designed to help each child look, feel and function better—faster.

Pioneering research

Our medical and surgical breakthroughs are fueled by the ongoing work of our plastic and oral surgery researchers. Based at our state-of-the-art research laboratory, these scientists are constantly striving to advance the field through transformative discoveries.

Here are just a few of the important areas we are studying:

angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels from existing vessels)
potential drug therapies for vascular malformations
cranial bone grafts for calvarial (skull) defects

Learn more about our research.

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Large breasts can take physical, mental toll on teens

Boston Children's plastic surgeon Brian Labow, MD, recently published an important study in the journal Pediatrics, focusing on the mental and physical struggles of teen girls with overly large breasts.

Read the HealthDay article about the study.

Obesity may raise odds for painful leg condition

In a letter published in the May 31, 2012 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, Boston Children's plastic surgeon Arin Greene, MD, MMsc, and his colleagues reported on 15 obese individuals with swelling in both legs. They diagnosed five of these individuals with leg lymphedema, and the cause of the condition was obesity.

Read the Yahoo! News story on this discovery.

Transforming lives in the developing world

John Meara, MD, DMD, MBA, chief of Boston Children's Department of Plastic and Oral Surgery, is also director of Harvard Medical School’s Program in Global Surgery and Social Change.

Dr. Meara and his Boston Children's colleagues work closely with organizations like Partners In Health and Operation Smile to improve the delivery of essential medical and surgical care throughout the developing world. Dr. Meara with patient

Learn more about some of these efforts by reading:

News release about Dr. Meara's study on life-saving Caesarean sections
Boston Children's Thriving blog post: A medical mission to Grozny
Thriving blog series: Children's in Haiti
The Boston Globe feature: The chance of two lifetimes

Casey leaves limitations on the sidelines

Casey was born on August 13, 1996, weighing 8 pounds and 13 .5 ounces and measuring 22 inches long. Casey infant

It was soon discovered that she had unilateral craniosynostosis, a condition in which the fibrous joints between the plates of the skull fuse too early during a development.

Follow Casey's journey.

A new face, a new future

Sporting a cheeky grin, Dumanel Luxama shrieks and slaps the couch in the Brockton house that he and his father, Almane, have called home for the past three months.

Dumanel

Tugging on the curtains, the 13-month-old baby from Haiti lets in a stream of light that spills onto his face, illuminating the feathery scars around his eyebrows and the one elongated scar wrapping around the crown of his head—the only signs of the major surgery the duo traveled 1,600 miles for.

Read Dumanel's story.

Plastic and Oral Surgery

About the Department of Pediatric Plastic and Oral Surgery