Introduction to the facial soft-tissue fillers conference supplement.

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery has published numerous conference proceedings and supplements on dermal injectables and soft-tissue dermal fillers, including botulinum toxin,1,2 semipermanent and permanent dermal and subdermal fillers,3,4 temporary dermal and soft-tissue fillers,5 and multimodality combination injectables for facial rejuvenation.6 Although these supplements were authored by multidisciplinary groups of plastic surgeons, dermatologists, and cosmetic medicine providers, they did not represent a wide range of specialties. Furthermore, those conference proceedings resulted in the collective statements of gathered groups of experts. Those groups of experts provided the best evidence available at the time on the topics at hand. In sharp contrast, the Facial Soft-Tissue Fillers Conference, which took place in Washington, D.C., December 6 through 7, 2009, represented a milestone multispecialty meeting. As Dr. Hanke’s Introduction indicates, the full strength of seven professional organizations representing dermatology, plastic and reconstructive surgery, ophthalmology, and otolaryngology joined together for the first time in a collaborative effort to identify and examine areas where evidence was lacking or absent on various dermal soft-tissue fillers. While the number and type of dermal soft-tissue fillers that provide volume restoration are increasing rapidly, especially in Europe, the safety and efficacy data are not keeping pace. In a word, the medical community needed to identify gaps in our collective knowledge: we need to know what we don’t know, and then set about ways to overcome these gaps. This supplement captures the proceedings of the conference and provides a comprehensive literature review. In doing so, it points the way to where clinical and basic science research is needed. This supplement is groundbreaking for a second reason: it is jointly published in both the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The American Academy of Dermatology and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons together believe that the material is of such importance to dermatologists and plastic surgeons that a joint publication would help ensure the widest possible dissemination of the material. Working in concert, both of our journals have jointly worked on the contents of the supplement, cooperating in the peer-review process, the revision and re-review process, and ultimately in the acceptance of the articles. The American Academy of Dermatology and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, in conjunction with the publishers Elsevier and Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, developed a publishing agreement that will allow the supple-