Department of Surgery, CUHK

INTRODUCTION

The Division of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery consists of a team of 8 plastic surgeons and trainees. The team provides plastic surgery support for the whole New Territories East Cluster with regular sessions at the Prince of Wales Hospital, the North District Hospital and the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, and we also attend consultations from the Shatin Hospital.

SERVICES

The Division takes care of the Burns Centre at the Prince of Wales Hospital. This is a modern world-class set-up offering both acute and rehabilitative services to affected patients of all ages. The Centre is well supported by a strong and devoted team of highly experienced nurses and a multidisciplinary team of staff playing different roles in the management of such patients. The Centre applies the latest technologies and dressings and has a well-staffed Skin Bank which provides a constant supply of cadaveric and porcine skin, amniotic membranes, as well as cultured epithelial keratinocytes. There are constant efforts at infection-control measures and monitoring.

The Head & Neck cancer service is a conjoint effort with the ENT Division. We are offering reconstruction after cancer extirpation employing the latest techniques using pedicle and free flaps achieving results comparable to international standards.

Similarly, the repair of major defects after general surgery excisions with flaps is often a result of collaboration with surgeons of various specialties, most notably and not exclusively, colorectal, cardiothoracic, orthopaedics and urology.

Breast reconstruction is our standard for all needy breast cancer patients. We offer specialist counselling of options to all newly diagnosed cancer patients. We have available for patients the full range of choices from external prosthesis, implants, to autogenous tissue choices from TRAM to DIEP flaps.

Skin cancer patients are arranged to have first consultation in a special Cutaneous Oncology Clinic with joint consultation by a special team of plastic surgeons, dermatologists and oncologist. This allows tailor-making the most appropriate decision for each individual patient.

Maxillofacial trauma service is also offered and the main source of patients is through the Accident & Emergency Department in relation to traffic accidents. There is close collaboration with Neurosurgery and the Dental Department.

The Division also provides a large-scale Laser Surgery Service offering laser dermatologic advice and treatment to patients with various pigmented and vascular lesions and scar problems.

The Vascular Malformation Clinic is a joint clinic with contributions from paediatric surgery, plastic surgery and interventional radiology. The Clinic maintains a good number of patients with haemangiomas and vascular malformations requiring treatment and/ or monitoring.

Since mid-2015 the Division has also taken up surgery for referrals of transgender operations.

The Division strongly supports self-auditing and peer review activities and is always on the constant strive for continuous improvement and quality service provision.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Division members also participate actively in educational activities.

The Division takes final year MB.,BCh students constantly the whole year round. The students are introduced to the scope of the specialty and its common approaches to surgical problems through clinical attachment, ward rounds and bedside teaching, out-patient sessions, operating theatre observations and whole class didactic lectures.

The Division is an accredited Training Centre, one of three in Hong Kong, for Higher Surgical Training in Plastic Surgery, endorsed by the Board of Plastic Surgery of the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong.

Members also participated in various teaching courses catered for the training of nurses in their undergraduate as well as postgraduate years.

The Division is active in organizing educational workshops and in participating in seminars and conferences. A number of burn and wound symposia have been conducted in the past few years. Several microsurgery courses were organized with cadaveric hands-on demonstrations of angiosomes, flaps and principles of perforator surgery. There is very active coordination with the continuous professional education activities of the Board of Plastic Surgery and the Hong Kong Society of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgeons.

The Division, together with the Department, co-sponsored the hosting of the 4th Congress of the World Association for Plastic Surgeons of Chinese Descent in 2014 held in Hong Kong.

The Division has a Visiting Professorship fund which from 2013 is sponsoring bi-annually an expert to come to the Division.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

scars and keloids
burn epidemiology
chemical burn
skin cancer
burn wound management
angiosomes
perforator flaps
microvascular reconstructions
lymphedema surgery

PEOPLE

HA Staff
Dr CHIU Tor Wo	Consultant
Dr TAM Yik Wun Yvonne	Associate Consultant
Dr LEUNG Ning Yan Lianne	Associate Consultant
Dr TING Wen Ching Jeannette	Resident
Dr KO Wai Shan Sophia	Resident
Dr TSE Darryl Andrew	Resident
Dr CHANG Ling Dulcia	Resident
Dr WANG Huishan Catherine	Resident

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Chiu TW, Kong SL, Cheng KF, Leung PC
Treatment of postmastectomy lymphoedema with herbal medicine
Plast Reconstr Surg Global Open 2020; 6:e2915
Chong SC, Hon KL, Scaglia F, Chow CM, Fu Y, Chiu T, Leung AKC
Severe generalized epidermolysis bullosa simplex in two Hong Kong children due to de novo mutations of KRT14 and KRT5 genes.
Case Rep Pediatr 2020; 2:1
Ko WS, Chiu T
Detection of perforators using Smartphone thermal imaging
Plast Reconstr Surg 2016; 138:380e
Vlantis AC, Wong EWY, Chiu TW, Chan JYK
Vastus lateralis muscle free flap for skull base osteoradionecrosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma
J Neurol Surg B Skull Base 2018; 79:349
Ko WS, Tan T, Mo KW, Wong PS, Chiu T
Use of intraoperative indocyanine green videoangiography to guide cutaneous angiosarcoma excision
Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open 2016; 19:e808
Wei Y, Li-Tsang CW, Luk DC, Tan T, Zhang W, Chiu TW
A validation study of scar vascularity and pigmentation assessment using dermoscopy
Burns 2015; 41:1717
Sun QS, Stantchev RI, Wang JR, Parrott EPJ, Cottenden A, Chiu TW, Ahuja AT, Pickwell-MacPherson E.
In vivo estimation of water diffusivity in occluded human skin using terahertz reflection spectroscopy
J Biophotonics 2019; 12:e201800145
Chong SC, Hon KL, Yuen L, Choi CL, Ng WGG, Chiu T
Neonatal epidermolysis bullosa: lessons to learn about genetic counselling
J Dermatolog Treat 2018; 3:1
Chiu TW, Chung WH, Vlantis AC, Burd DAR
Monitoring a free anterolateral thigh flap for pharyngeal reconstruction
Surg Pract 2009; 13:77
Chiu TW, Burd A
Cooking related pediatric burns
J Burn Care Res 2010; 31:371
Chiu TW, Leung CH, Lau EY et al
Analgesic effects of preoperative gabapentin after tongue reconstruction with the anterolateral thigh flap
HK Med J 2012; 18(1):30-4