Proposal of Photographic Standards in Plastic Surgery.

Lee, Whan Joon; Hwang, Kun; Lee, Se Il; Kim, Jong Min

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Original Article

Journal of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons 2002;29(1):45-54.
Published online January 1, 2002.

Proposal of Photographic Standards in Plastic Surgery.

Whan Joon Lee, Kun Hwang, Se Il Lee, Jong Min Kim

¹Department of Plastic Surgery, College of Medicine, Inha University, Inchon, Korea.
²Department of Clinical Photography, Inha University Hospital, Korea. jokerhg@inha.ac.kr

Abstract

Photographic standards in plastic surgery is an important problem that has been stressed in the discipline over the past several years. Clinical photographs should always be taken with the same camera lens, lens setting, lighting, film, and patient position to ensure reproducibility and to enable valid pre- and postoperative comparisons. However, no photographic standards in plastic surgery were established in Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. We analyzed that inappropriate photographs in the total publishing photographs were counted on the Journals of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons from 1995 to 2000. The causes of inappropriate photographs were categorized as six groups. We found three characteristics from photograph published on this journals. First, the ratio of inappropriate photographs were not decreased for recent six years - 30.6% in 1995 and 29,7% in 2000. The mean proportion of poorly qualifying photographs in total photos was 29.3% during six years. Second, the subject malposition due to incorrect anatomic landmark and technical errors were 34.8%., 20.0%, respectively. The markedly different size of pre-and postoperative subject, inappropriate orientation of camera (horizontally or vertically), inadequate patient preparation, others were 15.3%, 14.9%, 7.9%, 7.1% in order. Third, the most patient identity in this publication was recognizable regardless of patient consent(1673/1761, 95.0%). In our conclusion, first, the ease photographic standards for plastic surgeon in Korea was guided in our study. Second, we thought that the ease of using digital photography may be able to correct the inappropriate photographs due to technical errors of amateur. Third, we proposed that new format of permission for patient photographic authorization and release will be needed because of prevention against sue for invasion of privacy or release of identity in Korea.

Keywords: Photography; Informed consent

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