In good old days, Dermatology was a neglected branch of Medicine and was being looked at as a step child. In a sense, this was true because dermatologists had a limited armamentarium to treat various skin conditions. It was humiliating to a dermatologist to face a comment like “A patient with skin disease neither dies nor gets cured”.
Leave aside medical treatment, procedural dermatology was in its infancy, restricted to chemical cautery and paring of warts. Electrocautery and cryotherapy with CO2 ice was becoming popular for treating warts. Localized stable patches of vitiligo were treated with camouflage tattooing but the results were not aesthetically pleasant. Dr. P. N. Behl was one of the senior dermatologists, who motivated junior dermatologists to learn cutaneous surgery, way back in the 9th decade of the last century.
Split thickness skin graft and punch graft for stable patches of vitiligo became a routine surgical procedure in the dermatology practice. Those who were reluctant to use a knife, preferred a less invasive procedure suction blister grafting. Thanks to the pioneer work from dedicated people like R Falabella, Koga and many others. Suction blister graft technique was demonstrated for the first time in India during the national conference held at Vizag by me. Then onwards, holding a preconference workshop on dermatologic surgery became a tradition.
Become a member and join an active and diverse community of Cutaneous surgeons and enjoy access to wealth of resources.
Become A MemberDuring the national conference held at Manipal in 1993, an idea was floated on the lawns of KMC Manipal, why not share and spread the knowledge in the field of dermatologic surgery through an association of dermatologists with special interest in surgery. This novel idea was upheld by everyone present there including Dr. Vinay Saraf. This conceived baby was christened as ADSI ( Association of Dermatological Surgeons of India). The first event of this association was held at Bangalore. This turned out to be a great start, all credit to the efforts by the enthusiastic duo, Srinivas Murthy and Krupashankar. Dr. C. R. Srinivas was the first president of ADSI. Subsequent conferences were held at Jaipur and Coimbatore. It was decided that the ADSI conference will be a biennial event. At the same time, people with similar thoughts had formed an association, Indian academy of cutaneous surgeons (IACS) at Kolkata under the able leadership of Dr. Subrata Malakar. Initially office bearers of both the organizations were unaware of the existence of such 2 separate associations related to a same super-specialty of dermatology. Ultimately it was mutually decided to merge these two associations into one strong national association, and Association of Cutaneous Surgeons of India (ACSI) was established. ACSI logo was designed by me in 2000. With the advent of new century, ACSI advanced by leaps and bounds. Under the presidency of Dr. Vinay Saraf, and me as secretary
Foundation of the association was well led and the constructive work progressed with great efforts from nooks and corners of India. Dr. Kalla from Jodhpur, Dr. Dinesh Mathur from Jaipur, Dr. Niti Khunger and Dr Somesh Gupta from Delhi and Chandigarh, Dr.
The first decade of this century witnessed many new revolutionary techniques including devices and lasers. Day by day ACSI became a trustworthy platform to keep pace with the advances n this challenging field.
