[Preparing children and their parents for surgical interventions in a reconstructive plastic surgery division]

Fear of the unknown and the misunderstood increases the anxiety of patients of all ages who are going to have operations; in children fear is usually heightened by their fantasies. It is useful therefore to offer them accurate information in a way they can understand. Parents, too, can react better to their anxieties if they clearly know about the procedures to be done. In order to prepare the child patient as well as his parents for surgery, specific programs have been developed in a plastic surgical division.