Expansion: Dermatologic surgery enters the 21st century

Dermatology is now unquestionably both a medical and surgical discipline.¹ The development of dermatologic surgery during the 1970s and 1980s has been spectacular. The recent disciplines of dermatologic plastic surgery² and dermatologic cosmetic surgery bespeak the diversity of newly acquired surgical skills. The guiding light of dermatologie surgery during this period has been The American Society of Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS). It was created in the early 1970s to disseminate surgical skills. The Journal of Dermatologic Surgery and Oncology became the official publication for the ASDS and The International Society for Dermatologic Surgery. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) has responded admirably to this surgical inclination. Its national meeting program, once bereft of surgery, now has more than one third of the curriculum surgically oriented.³ The ASDS and AAD include in their programs advanced surgical courses featuring chemical peeling, blepharoplasty, rhytidectomy, liposuction, skin grafts and flaps, and other reconstructive procedures.