DOI: 10.1097/SCS.0b013e3181927e22

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PMID: 19293671

Issn Print: 1049-2275

Publication Date: 2009/03/01


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Clefts and Craniofacial Surgery: Innovations and Contributions in Motion

Mutaz B. Habal

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Excerpt

It was certainly a privilege and a pleasure for the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery to be part of the recognition of a person with as many contributions as John Bruce Mulliken. I got the call first from one of the members of the editorial board and subsequently discussed with the rest of the members the project and the venture of having this special supplement to the journal. I experienced both great enthusiasm and a sigh. The enthusiasm was based on John's dedication to the field of reconstructive plastic surgery as it applies to clefts and craniofacial deformities. The sigh was in recognition that it is about time we stop the tide that is imposed on the field of plastic surgery causing it to shy away from reconstructive plastic surgery as our founding fathers devised the field to be. The unanimous comment I got was that ours will be the supplement that presents the consensus that would be helpful to our patients.
Dr Leonard Kaban and Dr Michael Cohen will be supplement guest coeditors. They will see to it that all the manuscripts that were presented at the festschrift for Dr Mulliken will be part of the special supplement. It will contain a mixture of personal observations and scientific and clinical contributions from all around the world, which in itself is a major reflection of the honoree's global contributions. With him as their teacher at the Harvard hospitals, his trainees carried the message not only in this country but also in various areas of the world.
I have known John since he joined Dr Murray in Boston in the 1970s. I was visiting then as I usually did and sat in on the Friday clinic. Dr Murray informed me that a bright young man was joining the faculty, and he was highly endorsed and recommended by Dr Brad Cannon, another honorable person that Dr. Murray always had great respect for. That tradition of my attending the clinic has continued over the years, and I got to know John very well from there and at different conferences and discussions. I admire his meticulous attention to details especially in cleft repair. Also, he tries to bring the scientific method to an otherwise subjective evaluation of results which we all can fall in to.
Dr Judah Folkman, a long time friend and a major contributor to our bone symposium, also visited us a few times in Florida and was a major contributor to the our bone work that was going strong at the turn of the last century. I was in continuous contact with Dr Folkman, whom I knew well from the days when I was a resident surgeon in Boston and later on. I was so delighted to know that he would be among the contributors to the supplement because I respected and admired Dr Folkman, particularly he was going to be one of the organizers of this special symposium. His death, prematurely and unexpectedly, left us with a vacuum that is hard to fill. It is then appropriate to have the issue in his memory. His legend in the angiogenesis concept and work will be used in clinical practice, helping patients for a long time to come.
With this, I would like to thank the guest editors for their hard work in getting the supplement out and in tolerating the idiosyncrasies of the Editorial Manager. But, they did it and we are thankful.
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