Research

Charles Nduka has been pioneering methods to use high-resolution 3D photography to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of plastic surgery procedures.

He is an Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology of Imperial College, London where he supervises MD and PhD research into facial and breast surface imaging.

Published research articles

Charles Nduka has spent his entire surgical career researching methods to improve techniques of measuring performance and improving techniques. His research publications can be divided into three main themes: accuracy of objective assessment, technical innovation and the relationship between surgery and psychology.

Below is a list of publications in chronological order.

• Our Experience: The Psychosocial Impact Of Facial Palsy.

• Challenges in obtaining aesthetic breast ideals: Reply to ‘Concepts in aesthetic breast dimensions – Analysis of the ideal breast’.

• The modified scar approach for young patients undergoing lengthening temporalis myoplasty.

• Refinements in smile reanimation: 10-year experience with the lengthening Temporalis Myoplasty.

• Looking ‘the same’: Experiences of women who have had corrective surgery for breast asymmetry.

• Accurately monitoring fluid infiltration during multiple-site or large-volume liposuction.

• Anatomy of the infratemporal crest: implications for cross-facial nerve grafting in temporal myoplasty.

• Men’s experiences of gynaecomastia and corrective surgery: a qualitative report.

• Medical student research electives: stimulating a new generation of clinician- scientists.

• The Cake Flap: a new technique for serial excision of benign cutaneous lesions.

• Patient satisfaction in relation to nipple reconstruction: the importance of information provision.

• Funding criteria for common procedures: a postcode lottery in NHS plastic surgery.

• Monitoring of free flaps using near-infrared spectroscopy: a systematic review of the initial trials.

• Quantitative analysis of normal smile with 3D stereophotogrammetry–an aid to facial reanimation.

• 3D stereophotogrammetry quantitative lip analysis.

• Assessment of the reproducibility of facial expressions with 3-D stereophotogrammetry.

• A new classification of the nasolabial fold for use during facial reanimation surgery.

• Age- and gravity-related changes in facial morphology: 3-dimensional analysis of facial morphology in mother-daughter pairs.

• Objective assessment of keloid scars with three-dimensional imaging: quantifying response to intralesional steroid therapy.

• The Asplund-Davies vertical scar breast reduction technique preserves the sub- areolar skin thickness in the long term: a matched comparative study with the inverted T technique.

• Bilateral breast reduction surgery in England: a postcode lottery.

• Feasibility of transcutaneous mandibular distraction using an internal device.

• Intra-lesional injections of collagenase are ineffective in the treatment of keloid and hypertrophic scars.

• Delayed leech-borne infection with Aeromonas hydrophilia in escharotic flap wound.

• Uses and abuses of digital imaging in plastic surgery.

• The use of botulinum toxin in treating a twitching TRAM flap.

• Plast Reconstr Surg.

• Comparative breaking strength of non-permanent sutures.

• Nurse-led management of hypertrophic and keloid scars.

• Br J Plast Surg. 2003 Dec;56(8):842. Painless steroid injections for hypertrophic scars and keloids.

• Uses and abuses of digital imaging in plastic No touch free-flap temperature monitoring.

• Digital photography for rhinoplasty.

• Visual estimation of finger angles: do we need goniometers?

• Intraoperative fracture fixation made easy.

• Intraperitoneal hypothermia during surgery enhances postoperative tumor growth.

• A simple technique to avoid inadvertent damage to monofilament core suture material during flexor-tendon repair.

• Comparison of immunologic and physiologic effects of CO2 pneumoperitoneum at room and body temperatures.

• Other methods of laparoendoscopic hernia repair: mini-hernia–inguinal hernia repair through a 2-cm incision.

• Does the ultrasonically activated scalpel release viable airborne cancer cells?

• Laparoscopic + proctopexy.

• Endoscopically guided percutaneous repair of inguinal hernia through a 2-cm incision. Minihernia repair.

• Port-site metastasis in patients undergoing laparoscopy for gastrointestinal malignancy.

• Endoscopically guided surface repair of inguinal hernia.

• Simple ileal J-pouch construction using an endoscopic stapler.

• Mini-Hernia: Inguinal Hernia Repair through a 2-cm Incision.

• Virtual reality and laparoscopic surgery.

• Extracorporeal knot tying using an atraumatic Babcock clamp.

• Cause and prevention of electrosurgical injuries in laparoscopy.

• Nduka CC, Darzi A. Teaching laparoscopic surgery. Training courses are popular and valuable.

• Hernia repair

• Abdominal wall metastases following laparoscopy

• Heparinized saline to aid aspiration of blood clots during laparoscopy.

• Lyme disease and Bell’s palsy: an epidemiological study of diagnosis and risk in England.

• Botulinum toxin treatment for facial palsy: A systematic review.

• Bell’s facial nerve palsy in pregnancy: a clinical review.

• Periorbital Autologous Fat Grafting in Facial Nerve Palsy

• Occurrence and severity of upper eyelid skin contracture in facial nerve palsy

• CADS grading scale: towards better grading of ophthalmic involvement in facial nerve paralysis

• An objective assessment of Botulinum toxin type A injection in the treatment of post facial palsy synkinesis and hyperkinesis using the Synkinesis Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ)

• FACETEQ interface for emotion expression in VR