: Countless articles have demonstrated and emphasized the importance of mentoring in academic medicine. However, the upcoming role of mentors in the evolving medical field is poorly defined. As translational medicine, collaboration, and health care priorities change, so too must the goals and use of mentoring. The aims of this article are to demonstrate key aspects of effective mentoring in academic plastic surgery, show institutions how to cultivate mentoring relationships among their faculty and trainees, and provide direction for how to optimize the future use of mentoring to best prepare the next generation of plastic surgeons.: The authors reviewed the current literature regarding mentorship and the evolution of academic plastic surgery.: Mentors not only facilitate their protégés' entrance into the field and future success, but can also attract medical students and residents to careers in research and reduce the racial and gender discrepancies in plastic surgery and academia. Ideally, faculty should undergo some form of training before they enter mentoring relationships. This will ensure that they are aware of their specific duties as mentors, are able to communicate with mentees, and can avoid potential pitfalls.: Mentorship is a tool. If used correctly, it can help recruit and retain talented physician-scientists to plastic surgery to satisfy the growing demand. This will require institutions to actively support mentorship, provide opportunities and resources for training mentors, and enable faculty to allocate time to this vital pursuit.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

: After reading this article, the participant should be able to: 1. Explain the present challenges in reconstructive burn surgery. 2. Describe the most appropriate treatment methods and techniques for specific burn injury types, including skin grafts, dermal substitutes, and a variety of flap options. 3. Identify the appropriate use, advantages, and disadvantages of specific flaps in the treatment of burn injuries, including local, regional, superthin, prefabricated, prelaminated, and free flaps.

SUMMARY:

: Victims of thermal burns often form heavy scars and develop contractures around joints, inhibiting movement. As burns can occur in all cutaneous areas of the body, a wide range of reconstructive options have been utilized. Each method has advantages and disadvantages that must be considered by both patients and surgeons. The authors reviewed the literature for burn reconstruction and focused their discussion on areas that have been recently developed. They reviewed the mechanism of burn injury and discussed how this relates to the pathophysiology of the burn injury. Surgeons now have a wide array of plastic surgical techniques that can be used to treat burn victims. These range from skin grafts and local flaps to free flaps, prefabricated flaps, superthin flaps, and dermal scaffolds. Recent advances in burn reconstruction provide methods to decrease scar tissue and joint contractures. In the future, the authors hope that further developments in burn treatment will foster the development of new technologies that will allow site-specific reconstruction with minimal donor-site morbidity.