Surgeons have limited tools to successfully repair and track the recovery of peripheral nerves that have been severely damaged as a result of a traumatic injury, but Vanderbilt investigators hope to change this through research studies recently funded with more than $3 million in grants from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.

Bruce Shack, M.D., has announced plans to step down, effective July 1, as chair of the Department of Plastic Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), and he will remain on the faculty as a professor of Plastic Surgery.

Senior citizens are at no higher risk for complications from cosmetic surgery than younger patients, according to a recent study by plastic surgeons at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

John B. Lynch, M.D., professor of Plastic Surgery, emeritus, who was former chair of Plastic Surgery and the first director of the Vanderbilt Burn Center when it opened in 1983, died Monday, Oct. 20. He was 85.

Breast Reconstruction Awareness (BRA) day will be observed by Vanderbilt’s Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery on Wednesday, Oct. 15.