Plastic surgery is a medical discipline, which involves the correction of human form and function. Apart from aesthetic surgery, plastic surgery also includes a variety of fields: craniofacial surgery, hand surgery, burn surgery, microsurgery, and pediatric surgery. The word "plastic" is derived from the Greek plastikos, meaning to mold or to shape.

Common techniques used in plastic surgery are incision, excision, microsurgery, chemosurgery, electrosurgery, laser surgery, dermabrasion, and liposuction,

Grafting of skin forms the most common procedure in plastic surgery. In autografts, skin grafts are taken from the recipient. When this is not possible, alternatives such as cultured sheets, bovine tendon, allografts or: skin grafts taken from a donor of the same species, Xenografts or skin grafts from a donor of a different species, synthetic compounds such as silicone,.etc come into the picture.

Plastic surgery emphasizes careful planning of incisions so that they fall in the line of natural skin folds or lines. Appropriate choice of wound closure, use of best available suture materials, early removal of exposed sutures so that the wound is held closed by buried sutures and so forth are critical in the success of plastic surgery.

Reconstructive plastic surgery: To correct functional impairments caused by: burns, traumatic injuries, such as facial bone fractures, congenital abnormalities such as when an outer ear is absent from birth, a cleft lip, or cleft palate, developmental abnormalities, abnormalities arising from diseases and infections, removal of cancers or tumors, such as in mastectomy for a breast cancer, head and neck cancer and a abdominal invasion by a colon cancer.

Reconstructive plastic surgery is usually performed to improve function, but it may also be done to approximate a normal appearance, and to close skin and mucosa defects after removal of tumors in the head and neck region.

Cosmetic surgery: Cosmetic Surgery or aesthetic surgery is as a subspecialty of plastic surgery that restricts itself to the enhancement of appearance. It is specifically concerned with maintaining normal appearance, restoring it, or enhancing it beyond the average level toward some aesthetic ideal. In 2006, nearly 11 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in the United States alone.

Blepharoplasty (or "eyelid surgery"): Reshaping of the eyelids or the application of permanent eyeliner, including Asian blepharoplasty.

o Breast augmentation This can involve either fat grafting, saline or silicone gel prosthetics. Initially performed to women with micromastia

o Breast reduction involving: removal of skin and glandular tissue to reduce back and shoulder pain in women with gigantomastia and/or for psychological benefit in women with gigantomastia/macromastia and men with gynecomastia.

o Breast lift (Mastopexy): Lifting or reshaping of breasts to make them less saggy, often after weight loss (after a pregnancy, for example). It involves removal of breast skin as opposed to glandular tissue.

Buttock Augmentation This procedure can be performed by using silicone implants or fat grafting from other areas of the body.

Chemical peel: Minimizing the appearance of acne, pock, and other scars as well as wrinkles (depending on concentration and type of agent used, except for deep furrows), solar lentigines (age spots, freckles), and photodamage in general. Chemical peels commonly involve carbolic acid (Phenol), trichloroacetic acid (TCA), glycolic acid (AHA), or salicylic acid (BHA) as the active agent.

Chin augmentation: Augmentation of the chin with an implant (e.g. silicone) or by sliding genioplasty of the jawbone.

Kerala, offers the best opportunity to combine conventional tourism with health-tourism involving plastic/cosmetic surgery. Cochin the financial capital of Kerala, is well-connected to major international destinations by air and sea, and offers high quality tourist and healthcare facilities. Perhaps not surprisingly for a city where the traditional and the modern coexist so perfectly, Cochin is home to many world-class medical facilities.