The difference between EVIDENCE and EXPERIENCE is often quite the chasm.
A while ago, as I was proofing the final version of a new article that has just gone to print in the scientific journal Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, I was contemplating a few things. Whilst this new paper, which has been peer-reviewed, provides an outline of my experience and the technique I use for explant procedures, that is by no means the same thing as having sufficient "evidence" to "prove" that I am right (and by inference, that everyone else is wrong). The same thoughts have recently come to mind as I was submitting a few things for possible presentation at an upcoming conference.
Those thoughts go a little like this:
My experience with a technique is favourable. My outcomes are, I think, good. My patients are mostly satisfied (as much as that is possible with a procedure like explant surgery). What does that mean? Does that prove anything?
And the answer is: probably not. At least, not yet.
In order to translate my experience into actual evidence, we need a couple of major steps to follow.
If, following those steps, there is a pattern of genuinely better outcomes with the technique I have described, then sure, I could probably get to a point where we can then talk about "evidence" of superiority of that particular technique.
But for now, it is just experience. It is the first necessary step on a longer journey.
If you'd like to learn more about how we perform explant surgery without surgical drains, please follow this link: Explant surgery with Dr Campbell-Lloyd
If you'd like to read the research article published in the Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Journal, please use the links below:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38914879/
https://link.springer.com/journal/266/volumes-and-issues/49-2