The Department of Reconstructive Microsurgery was formed in 2007 as a separate division of Plastic Surgery when Dr. Prashanth Varkey joined. The primary aim was to create a state of art Reconstructive Microsurgery service along with the already well established Burns, Cleft Lip and Palate Services. In order to develop specific areas in the broad arena of Plastic Surgery, Cleft lip and palate care became a dedicated facility under Charles Pinto Center for Cleft lip, Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies headed by Dr H.S.Adenwalla.
After an initial period of shared services, the division Reconstructive Microsurgery made its humble beginning with a 8 bed ward and also took over the management of Burns. The Burns unit underwent a restructuring in aesthetics and functionality getting it geared up to start work in Tissue Engineering. A make shift facility which functioned as Tissue engineering lab facility started adjacent to the Burns unit with the aim of developing affordable dermal substitutes and progressing to work toward bioengineering of human skin. The Bioengeering lab partnered with the Department of Meat Sciences at Government Veterinary College, Mannuthy to start work on gamma irradiated amniotic membrane as a scaffold for tissue engineering of human skin.
In 2013, our in-patient unit of JISHAM has been relocated to the second floor of Jubilee Hridyalaya. Currently our unit performs over 1100 operations per year with existing facilities.
The new burns unit remains in the same location and underwent changes in appearance and functionality. Acute burn care improved and early surgery in deep burns became the norm. Much of the long term morbidities in burns decreased. The staff here gained exposure in Tissue Engineering work. Our effort on Burn prevention took shape when we conceptualized and produced the first of its kind- BURN PREVENTION ANIMATION FILM . This was screened in public areas and in schools.
In 2009, due to the complex surgeries and multiple department involvement especially in the area of trauma reconstruction, Reconstructive Microsurgery received its dedicated Operation Room in the main operation theatre complex and also procured the Carl Zeiss Operating Microscope Over the years, the number of surgeries performed by this department increased and inpatient facilities were then shifted to a separate unit JISHAM (Jubilee Institute of Surgery for Hand, Aesthetic & Microsurgery). This unit was inaugurated on November 11, 2010.
A year later our unit made a landmark achievement when we became the first Center in South India to have a Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy Unit. Today, Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy forms an important adjunctive treatment in many of the disease conditions treated by Plastic Surgery. This unit offered training to doctors and technicians interested in Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy.
In 2012, our unit achieved the distinction of becoming the first unit in our hospital and in the region to secure a Central government grant for the project on bioengineering of human skin. The same year witnessed the inauguration of our Jubilee Initiative on Tissue Engineering Research (JITER) by Professor Anthony Iorio, Vice Dean, Academic Affairs, New York College of Podiatric Medicine, USA.