Application of Drone in Plastic Surgery

Drone applications in medicine include disaster assessment,1 delivery of aid packages,1 vaccines,1 blood, rapid access to automated external defibrillators (AED) for patients in cardiac arrest,2 and rapid transport for organs for transplantation.1 Telemedicine is a field where drones have great possibilities, especially in the field of tele barrier nursing for an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patient. ICU patients are gnerally immunocompromised and require intensive monitoring. This requires either constant presence of a doctor or repeated visits to the isolation ICU.3 Repeated visits can increase the risk of cross-infection through a doctor/health care professional that enters the room. Using a drone circumvents these issues and helps us monitoring the patient remotely, without any direct patient contact. Drones have already been used successfully in major disasters due to the ease to bypass road closures and rugged terrains without any flight crew.3 They have been ised in 2010 earthquatke in Hiati, 2012 in the United States, 2015 in islands on Vanuatu and for the 2015 earthquake in Nepal.3 The Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors without borders (MSF) used drones to transport dummy TB test samples in Papua New Guinea. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tested medical supply delivery to a small clinic in rural Virginia using a drone. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) delivered human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) kits in Malawi, Africa using a drone too.3 Drones in out of hospital arrest of the patient have been well documented. They have been used to transport AED’s in public place rapidly on call for ambulance in case of arrest.