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Our Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Experts

The surgeons at the UPMC Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Center are leaders and innovators in their specialties, and have expertise in facial aesthetics, body contouring, breast procedures, minimally invasive procedures and skin care. Our surgeons will listen to your concerns, and discuss a wide range of options to determine which procedure best fits your goals. They will then use the latest technological advances and surgical techniques to help you achieve those goals.

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J. Peter Rubin, MD
Chief, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Dr. Rubin is board certified in plastic surgery and is co-director the UPMC Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Center. The founder and director of UPMC’s Life After Weight Loss program, a unique program that  combines body contouring surgery with lifestyle and nutritional counseling in a supportive environment, Dr. Rubin is a national leader in the field of body contouring. He lectures extensively in the United States and throughout the world about body contouring surgery and is the lead author of a body contouring medical textbook for plastic surgeons. Dr. Rubin is a past recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the nation's highest honor for young researchers.
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Carolyn De La Cruz, MD
Dr. De La Cruz is board certified in plastic surgery and has extensive training in post-cancer reconstruction. She founded the University of Pittsburgh’s microsurgical breast reconstructive program and offers a complete array of breast reconstruction techniques with an individualized approach for each patient. Dr. De La Cruz also is interested in body contouring, aesthetic surgery and women's health.
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Michael Gimbel, MD
Dr. Gimbel is board certified in plastic surgery and his practice encompasses the wide scope of plastic surgery including cosmetic, hand, breast, facial, and general reconstructive surgery. He has particular interest in the many avenues of breast restoration, offering implant-based, microsurgical, and oncoplastic-type reconstructions. An author of numerous articles and book chapters on plastic surgery issues, Dr. Gimbel practices at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC and UPMC Shadyside. Dr. Gimbel is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgery, the Greater Pittsburgh Plastic Surgery Society, the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery, and the Ohio Valley Society of Plastic Surgeons. 
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Vu Nguyen, MD
Dr. Nguyen is board certified in plastic surgery and his clinical interests include reconstructive breast surgery and cosmetic surgery of the face, breast, and body as well as minimal scar techniques for breast renewal surgery, and contemporary approaches to facial rejuvenation. His has won several awards for his teaching and for publications based on his research activities. Dr. Nguyen believes that since plastic surgery involves personal choices, clinical expertise should be matched with individual expectations. His plastic surgery philosophy is to look outside the typical standards of what is considered beautiful, and enhance the beauty that already exists within each patient.    
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James M. Russavage, MD, DMD
Dr. Russavage is board certified in plastic surgery and physical medicine and rehabilitation, and is also a doctor of dental medicine. His research interests include trauma reconstruction and wound healing, and his surgical interests include aesthetic and breast surgery.  
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Kenneth C. Shestak, MD
Dr. Shestak is board certified in surgery and plastic surgery, and is co-director of UPMC’s Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Center. He has received national and international recognition for teaching as well as for his cosmetic and breast surgery practices. His interests and surgical practice includes facial cosmetic surgery, breast procedures, and body contouring techniques. Dr. Shestak is the author of a textbook describing breast surgery revision, and numerous research publications. In the past, he had been named one of Pittsburgh’s Best Doctors by Pittsburgh Magazine and recognized as one of America's best doctors by Good Housekeeping. Dr. Shestak's enjoys the doctor-patient relationship of the cosmestic surgery experience.
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