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By 1955, there were about four to five plastic surgeons devoting their full time to this speciality and there was a desire to form an Association. Thus, in the Annual General Body Meeting of A.S.I. held in December, 1956 at Indore, Dr. R.N.Sinha moved a resolution to this effect. A sub-committee was formed with Dr. C.P.V. Menon of Madras as its Chairman and Dr. R.N.Sinha as the Convenor to frame Bye-laws and Regulations for an Association of Plastic Surgeons of India - as a Section of Association of Surgeons of India.

In the year 1957 considerable interest was created in Maharashtra following the visit of Sir Harold Gillies. He was pleasantly surprised to see deformities being treated by tube pedicles and other modern techniques of plastic surgery. He applauded the excellent work that Major Sukh was doing in the field of Rehabilitative Plastic Surgery at the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune. It was not only an eye-opener for all., but a surprise to Dr. Gillies himself. Many war casualties had extensive stay in his unit for such procedures of rehabilitation. Sir Harold Gillies also demonstrated various operations and techniques at Kandhwa Leprosy Centre, where Dr.N.H.Antia was working. Dr. Gillies, as the founder of modern plastic surgery was keen to propogate knowledge in this speciality in one of the most populous countries of the world. He visited and lectured at several centres in the country including Nagpur, Calcutta, Delhi, Patna and Jaipur . At Nagpur, in December 1957, he inaugurated the Association of Plastic Surgeons in India - as a section of A.S.I. The Association elected the following office bearers :

Sr. No Dr. Name Designation
1 Dr.R.N.Cooper President
2 Dr.C.Balakrishnan Vice-President
3 Dr.R.N.Sinha Founder Secretary
4 Dr.R.N.Sharma Founder Members
5 Dr. N.H. Antia Founder Members
6 Dr. Herur Hirannia (ENT Specialist from Bangalore) Founder Members

This was indeed a great historic moment and Dr. Gillies was made the first honorary member. Dr. Gillies stayed in India for about three months and before leaving for England he insisted on a token payment of Rs.100/- to Dr. Antia as an inspiration to continue his efforts in establishing a Department of Plastic Surgery at a Government Medical College in Bombay. This proved to be a great morale booster and the first unit of plastic surgery started at J.J. Hospital, Bombay in December 1958 with Dr. Antia as its Head.

In December 1958, at Lucknow, the Association elected : -

Sr. No Dr. Name Designation
1 Dr.C.Balakrishnan President
2 Dr.R.N.Sharma Vice-President
3 Dr.R.N.Sinha Continuing as Secretary

Rest as members of the Council for a period of three years i.e. up to 1960

In December 1960, at Pune, the following office bearers were elected :-

Sr. No Dr. Name Designation
1 Dr.R.N.Sinha President
2 Dr.M.Mukherjee Vice-President
3 Dr.N.H.Antia Secretary Secretary

And the rest as members of the Council.

A Burns and Plastic Surgery Unit was established in 1961 at K.E.M. Hospital, Bombay, by Dr. Charles Pinto. Mr. E.W. Peet of Oxford was a regular visitor to this unit.

Dr. R.L.Maneksha after his return from abroad in early fifties continued doing Plastic Surgery under the Department of General Surgery. Later he was responsible for establishing the Unit of Plastic Surgery at G.T.Hospital, Bombay, in early sixties.

Dr. J.L. Gupta after 5 years of post-graduate training in various British centres of Plastic, Maxillo-facial, Burns and Hand surgery, was interviewed in India House, London, and selected for the post of Reader in the Department of Plastic Surgery at Medical College, Nagpur, which he joined in January 1961. Dr. Gupta was greatly impressed by Prof. C. Balakrishnan who had completely adapted himself to Indian conditions while maintaining international standards.

In December,1961 at Baroda, Dr. R.J.Maneksha and Dr.J.L.Gupta were added to the Council of Members. The first summer conference of the Association was held at Nagpur in 1964. The most outstanding feature of the conference was the brilliant presentation on the classification of cleft lip and palate by Prof. C. Balakrishnan; now known throughout the country as Nagpur Classification.

The first batch of post-graduate students trained in our country appeared for their examination from Nagpur and Patna Universities in 1962 and 1963 respectively. Dr. J.L. Gupta was the first external examiner at Patna.

In 1963, the Government decided to start a Department of Burns, Plastic and Maxillo-facial Surgery at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. Dr. J.L. Gupta had the honour of starting and developing this unit and by shear hard work and dedication it became a major unit of Plastic Surgery in India in a very short time. It still is the largest burn centre in the country.

In 1964, first Post-graduate Medical Education Conference was convened by the Medical Council of India under the Chairmanship of the then Union Minister of Health Dr. Sushila Nayyar at Delhi. She had convened this meeting to standardize post-graduate curriculum of different specialities which was then to be carefully supervised by the Medical Council of India. To draft the syllabus for Plastic Surgery the following attended the Post Graduate Medical Education Conference.

Sr. No Dr. Name Designation
1 Dr.C.Balakrishnan Convener
2 Dr.N.H.Antia Reporter
3 Late Dr.R.N.Sharma Speaker
4 Late Dr.M.Mukherjee Speaker
5 Late Dr.R.N.Sinha Speaker
6 Late Dr.R.N.Sharma Speaker
7 Dr.J.L.Gupta Speaker
8 Pinto Speaker

Dr.R.L.Manchanda and Dr.R.K.Keshwani from Patiala joined as Observers.

This Conference was a hallmark in laying down guidelines for physical standards and criteria, the teaching requirements, the course and curriculum leading to the degree of M.Ch. in Plastic Surgery in India.

The Conference of A.S.I. due in December 1964 was postponed due to Indo-Pak conflict and was later held in Delhi, in March 1965. The Association elected the following office bearers.

Sr. No Dr. Name Designation
1 Dr.M.Mukherjee President
2 Dr.R.N.Sharma Vice-President
3 Dr.C.Pinto Secretary
4 And the rest continued as members of the Council.

Then in 1966 at Manipal, the Association elected the following.

Sr. No Dr. Name Designation
1 Dr.R.N.Sharma President
2 Dr.N.H.Antia Vice-President
3 Dr.C.Pinto Secretary
4 And the rest continued as members of the Council.

Dr.R.N.Sharma represented our Association at the International meeting held at Rome in 1967. Thus , APSI joined the International Confederation of Plastic Surgeons.

By December 1967, the Association had grown to about 66 members (including 37 full members). At this time the Association elected the following.

Sr. No Dr. Name Designation
1 Dr.N.H.Antia President
2 Dr.C.Pinto Vice-President
3 Dr.J.L.Gupta Secretary

By 1968, we had 11 plastic surgery centres in the country at Nagpur, Patna, Lucknow, Bombay, Pune, Delhi, Chandigarh, Patiala, Madras, Madurai and Calcutta. From 1968 -1974 the following were elected as Presidents of the Association, Dr. C. Pinto, Dr. R.L. Maneksha, Brig. R. Ganguly, and Dr. J.L. Gupta.

In the last three decades, there has been tremendous growth of Plastic Surgery. The number of teaching centres increased and the Association established several travelling fellowships for training within and outside the country. A few specialized centres of excellence for management of burns, hand, micro-vascular surgery, cranio-facial surgery and aesthetic surgery also developed by dint of hard work, and special interests in different parts of the country. The Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery started in 1981 to bring together all the professionals involved to disseminate and advance their knowledge.

Since 2011, 15th July each year is being celbrated as 'National Plastic Surgery Day. to spread awareness about Plastic Surgery amongst the doctors and the general public. It is marked by organising for doctors, medical students and for the general public. Philanthropic activiies are also done on this day.

The following were Presidents and Secretaries of the Association after 1974.

Sr. No Year President Name City (Conference at) Secretary City
1 1975 Dr.C.R.Sunderarajan Madras
2 1976 Dr. P. B. Sulakhe Pune Dr.J.R.Jaju Ahmedabad
3 1977 Dr.Suresh Gupta Delhi
4 1978 Dr.I.K.Dhawan Delhi
5 1979 Dr. Sam. C. Bose Madurai
6 1980 Col.P.M.Kathpalia Delhi Dr.H.R.P.Sinha Calcutta
7 1981 Dr. R. S. Thind Patiala
8 1982 Dr. P. A. Thomas Trivandrum
9 1983 Dr. A. C. Ganguly Calcutta (Darjeeling)
10 1984 Dr. S. M. Mahaluxmiwala Bombay Dr. M. Ramakrishnan Madras
11 1985 Dr. C.P.Sawhney Chandigarh
12 1986 Dr. K. S. Goleria Bombay
13 1987 Dr. J. R. Jaju Ahmedabad
14 1988 Dr. (Mrs)M. Ramakrishnan Madras Dr. K. S. Shekhar Bangalore
15 1989 Dr.S.N.Sharma Baroda
16 1990 Lt. Gen. N. C. Sanyal, PVSM Delhi
17 1991 Dr. J. K. Sinha Varanasi
18 1992 Dr. N. J. Pandya Bombay Dr. S.K. Bhatnagar Lucknow
19 1993 Dr. K. S. Shekhar Bangalore
20 1994 Dr. B. M. Daver Bombay
21 1995 Dr. Ramakrishnan Nair Trivandrum
22 1996 Rear Adm. J. C. Sharma VSM Delhi
23 1997 Prof. Ramesh Chandra Lucknow
24 1998 Prof. Siti Roy Chowdhury Calcutta Dr. Rajeev B. Ahuja New Delhi
25 1999 Prof. S. R. Tambwekar Mumbai (Goa)
26 2000 Prof. S. K. Bhatnagar Lucknow (Agra)
27 2001 Dr. P. K. Bilwani Ahmedabad
28 2002 Dr. Sadashiv Murthy Bangalore Dr. Rajeev B.Ahuja New Delhi
29 2003 Dr. K. Sridhar Chennai (Ooty)
30 2004 Dr. Malti Gupta Jaipur Dr. Arun Kumar Singh Lucknow
31 2005 Dr. R.B. Ahuja New Delhi
32 2006 Dr. Mukund Reddy Hyderabad
33 2007 Dr. L. P. Sadhotra Pune Dr. Arun Kumar Singh Lucknow
34 2008 Dr. V. Bhattacharya Varanasi
35 2009 Dr. G. Balakrishan Chennai (Mahabalipuram)
36 2010 Dr. Mukund Thatte Mumbai (Goa) Dr Atul K Shah Vadodara
37 2011 Dr. R. Rajasabapathy Coimbatore
38 2012 Prof. Arun K. Singh Lucknow
39 2013 Dr. Ashok Gupta Mumbai Dr. Atul Shah Vadodara
40 2014 Dr. Ramesh Sharma Chandigarh
41 2015 Dr. Prabha Yadav Mumbai
42 2016 Dr. Karoon Agarwal Delhi Dr. Parag Sahasrabudhe Pune
43 2017 Dr. Subramania Iyer Kochi
44 2018 Dr. Surajit Bhattacharya Lucknow
45 2019 Dr. Amresh Baliarsing Bhubaneswar
46 2020 Cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19
47 2021 Dr. Rakesh Kumar Khazanchi Delhi [Virtual]
48 2022 Dr. Amresh Baliarsing Amritsar