PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of the passing of Nobel Prize winning surgeon Dr. Joseph Murray, who carried out the first successful kidney transplant in 1954, Dr. Peter C. Neligan, author of the definitive textbook of the discipline, Plastic Surgery, (3^rd Ed., Elsevier, October 2012) is available to comment on Dr. Murray's legacy of innovation. Dr. Murray died on Monday in Boston at the age of 93.

"The history of Plastic Surgery is one of innovation in medicine, and Dr. Murray's contributions paved the way for developments that today continue in areas such as hand and face transplantation," says Dr. Neligan, author of five books, more than 50 book chapters and 170 peer-reviewed papers.

A professor of Plastic Surgery and Otolaryngology/Neck Surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, Dr. Neligan spent four years editing Plastic Surgery, working with the Elsevier team and with the volume editors. The 6-volume text is the first update in a decade, and includes 160 videos and online resources that bring the latest techniques to the practitioner's iPad or cell phone.

"Many people think of plastic surgery as a cosmetic practice, but Aesthetic Surgery fills only one of the six volumes in the Plastic Surgery text," Dr. Neligan says. "Plastic Surgeons are leading the way with new developments in stem cell therapy, tissue engineering, and inductive therapies; aesthetic surgical techniques and nonsurgical treatments; conjoined twin separation and other craniofacial surgery advances; microsurgical lymphatic reconstruction, super microsurgery, nerve transfers in hand surgery, functional prosthetics, and more."

Additional information about Dr. Neligan and Plastic Surgery is available at http://elsevierauthors.com/peterneligan.

SOURCE Elsevier, Inc.