What plastic surgery is researching now
The topics gaining the most ground, ranked by the PubDaily Trend Score: new research, stronger evidence, new trials and new guidelines. 291 topics in 22 specialties, updated 18 Oct 2026.
Monthly reportThe fastest-rising topics in medicine: October 2026Read →Negative pressure wound therapy
Vacuum-assisted wound closure.
Key point: Following stoma reversal, NPWT failed to significantly reduce surgical site infections but significantly reduced complete wound healing time compared with standard dressings.
Fat grafting
Autologous fat transfer in reconstructive and aesthetic surgery.
Body contouring after weight loss
Surgery after massive weight loss, including after GLP-1 drugs.
AI in plastic surgery
AI and language models in plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Aesthetic botulinum toxin
Botulinum toxin for facial lines and aesthetic use.
Key point: In men, botulinum toxin type A for upper facial wrinkles had high response rates, with minor and transient adverse events.
Prepectoral breast reconstruction
Implant placement in front of the pectoral muscle.
See all 12 plastic surgery topics
Every rising topic, with the papers behind it. Free for doctors.
How the Trend Score works
Four signals
Growth in new papers (35%), growth in randomised trials, meta-analyses and systematic reviews (25%), new clinical trials registered (20%), and new guidelines and consensus statements (20%), each over the last 12 months against the 12 before.
A score out of 100
Each signal is ranked against every topic we follow, so a score of 90 means the topic is ahead of about 90% of them. Rising fast: 80 and above. Rising: 55 to 79. Emerging: fewer than 100 papers the year before, too few to rank.
What it does not tell you
More research on a topic is not evidence that a treatment works. Open a topic to read the papers and guidelines themselves. Counts come from PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov.