美容整形外科的目的是為快速出版有關提高美容整形外科藝術的技術的原創文章提供一個論壇。盡管這些文章中的許多都將描述外科技術本身，但其他文章將處理外科手術中的并發癥以及治療或避免并發癥的方法。”關于應該或可能放棄、修改或改進的久已確立的技術的第二種想法，以及專門討論使用一種特定技術與另一種技術產生的爭議的專題討論會，并將包括從這些對話中吸取的教訓。個別或孤立的病例史，可能會增加專業知識及其進步的資金；美容整形外科醫生使用的手術器械、藥物和手術室設備的改進；以及美容整形外科中的輔助問題的討論，例如心理社會因素的作用。醫患關系中的行動者和病人與公眾的相互關系，都將被呈現出來。預防醫學和遺傳咨詢在避免一些最終需要美容手術矯正的疾病中的作用，以及影響患者和外科醫生對身體特征整體外觀的審美判斷的某些因素，以及身體人類學在理解中的重要性。將討論患者對特定類型手術的種族要求。論述了美容整形外科的發展和持續發展的歷史，以及“社會”和“公眾”對美容整形外科使用“正當性”的態度。也許最重要的是，將發表論文和報告，討論美容整形手術作為長期和冗長的重建手術治療先天性、后天性、偶然性和腫瘤性缺陷患者整體康復的最后一步的作用越來越大。

The purpose of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery is to provide a forum for the rapid publication of original articles dealing with techniques advancing the art of aesthetic plastic surgery. Although many of these articles will describe surgical craftsmanship per se others will deal with complications in surgical procedures and methods by which to treat or avoid them. "Second thoughts" about long established techniques, which should or might be abandoned, modified, or improved, as well as symposia devoted to the controversies arising from the use of one particular technique vs. another and the lessons to be learned from these dialogues will be included. Individual or isolated case histories, which may add to the specialty's increasing fund of knowledge and its advancement; improvements in surgical instruments, pharmaceuticals, and operating room equipment of use to the aesthetic plastic surgeon; and discussions of ancillary problems in aesthetic plastic surgery, such as the role of psychosocial factors in the doctor-patient and the patient-public interrelationships, are all to be presented. The role of preventive medicine and genetic counseling in averting some of the conditions that ultimately require aesthetic surgical correction, as well as certain factors that influence the patient's and surgeon's aesthetic judgement in relation to the overall appearance of a body feature, and the importance of physical anthropology in understanding the patient's ethnic requirements for a particular type of surgical procedure will be discussed. The history of the development and continuing growth of aesthetic plastic surgery and the attitudes of "society" and "the public" concerning the "justification" for the use of aesthetic plastic surgery will be dealt with. Perhaps most importantly, papers and reports are to be published discussing the increasing role of aesthetic plastic surgery as the final step in the overall rehabilitation of patients undergoing longstanding and tedious reconstructive surgery for the repair of congenital, acquired, accidental and neoplastic defects.