The Crucial Role AI Is Playing in Plastic Surgery

Dr. Brandon Richland, MD

If there’s one thing we know about artificial intelligence (AI) it is that most of the public is skeptical. They are interested in what all it may be able to do and provide, but they also have fear of the unknown surrounding it. In fact, research published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry reports that people have anxieties around the idea of AI for a variety of reasons. When it comes to the field of plastic surgery, the more people understand the role it plays, the more comfortable they will feel with its usage. 

“AI is being used a lot now in plastic surgery and it’s not going away,” explains Dr. Brandon Richland, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Newport Beach, Calif. “We have been able to harness the tools it provides to improve patient experiences and outcomes and that is what we want people to be aware of.”

The research report found that anxieties around AI surround its unpredictability, sense of emptiness, ethical considerations, and fears about humanity’s future in the face of so much AI utilization. While these are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed, they are largely coming from a place of fearing the unknown. Any type of new technology brings with it an uneasiness in the public, as they learn to adapt to the changes that it provides. 

In plastic surgery, AI is revolutionizing the industry in a big way. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that AI is rapidly transforming surgical care by enhancing precision, efficacy, and patient safety. AI is helping people to make surgical decisions from the consultations through aftercare and beyond. They report that AI is helping to ensure that patients receive the highest standard of surgical treatment, as it provides improved precision and reduced surgical errors.

Here are some of ways AI is playing a role in the field of plastic surgery:

Consultations – Those who are getting plastic surgery want to envision what the outcome would look like. This plays a big role in deciding whether or not to get the surgery done. One of the most significant roles that AI plays today is in helping people to envision what the surgery outcome will look like, utilizing unique patient data. This helps with managing expectations and communication between the patient and surgeon. AI tools can also analyze body features and suggest the most effective surgical approaches to take. 

Operating Room – AI is being used in crucial ways in the operating room, helping to make surgeries more precise, safer, and lead to better outcomes. Robotic surgery, AI-guided arms are able to help surgeons that provide more precision than the human hand is able to do. This is important in any surgery, but especially when performing one that involve microsurgical procedures, such as breast reconstruction. It’s also being used to help create anatomical maps and assisting surgeons to avoid critical strictures, such as blood vessels and nerves, which helps to reduce complications risks.

Post-op Care – AI provides tools to help monitor a patient's recovery following surgery. There are AI-powered sensors that patients can wear, which provide images and detect early signs of complications, allowing for a faster intervention. It is also gathering valuable data from surgical procedures, which can be used to help lead to more successful and precise and safer outcomes. The information gathered from the AI tools helps surgeons to continuously improve in all area. 

Diagnostics – AI provides massive image libraries that are used as tools to help doctors address issues and catch potentially dangerous situations early on. The tools provide accuracy that often exceeds the experience of the doctor, which improves the patient's progress and outcome through better diagnoses and treatment protocols.

"While there may be a few concerns with AI, the benefits that it provides significantly outweighs them," said Dr. Richland. "Being able to provide our patients with a higher level of care because of AI is a win-win for everyone and we’re excited about it.”

There are challenges and concerns that remain in using AI in surgery settings. These include ensuring patient data privacy and security, algorithm bias that may not serve a diverse population, accountability if something with AI goes wrong, and that some may feel it depersonalizes the relationship between the doctor and patient. It’s important for people to remember that AI is not replacing the doctor, but enhancing their role. According to an open report published in the journal JPRAS, they conclude that certain challenges and concerns with AI usage in surgery persists, but a collaborative effort can solve these issues to bring about a new era of medicine, where AI aids doctors in the pursuit of optimal patient care.

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