Dr. Leila Gharbi Trabelsi

Dr. Leila Gharbi Trabelsi is a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at Hôpital Charles Nicolle in Tunis, one of Tunisia's leading university hospitals and the national centre for burn surgery and reconstructive plastic surgery. With 19 years of specialist experience and postgraduate fellowship training in France, she combines French-trained aesthetic surgical technique with the reconstructive expertise built through years of managing complex burns, cancer reconstruction, and congenital deformity cases at a major North African referral hospital.

Hôpital Charles Nicolle's plastic surgery department has a national mandate in Tunisia for burn treatment and reconstructive surgery, making it one of the busiest plastic surgery units in the Maghreb. Dr. Gharbi Trabelsi's practice reflects this dual mandate: she performs high volumes of both reconstructive surgery — post-mastectomy breast reconstruction, burn scar release, flap-based wound coverage, cleft repair — and aesthetic surgery, including rhinoplasty, facelift, blepharoplasty, and breast surgery. Tunisia's emergence as a medical tourism destination for aesthetic surgery in the Arab world has been shaped in part by surgeons of her profile: French-fellowship-trained, Arabic-speaking, and operating at internationally accredited institutions.

Dr. Gharbi Trabelsi trained at the Université de Tunis El Manar, earning her Doctorat en Médecine and her DES in Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery before undertaking a fellowship in aesthetic surgery in France. She is a member of the International Confederation for Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (IPRAS), reflecting her engagement with global plastic surgery standards.

Dr. Gharbi Trabelsi completed her Doctorat en Médecine and her DES (Diplôme d'Études Spécialisées) in Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery at the Université de Tunis El Manar, Tunisia's premier medical university. The DES programme in plastic surgery encompasses both reconstructive and aesthetic surgery, providing trainees with broad operative experience spanning burns, microsurgery, cancer reconstruction, and cosmetic procedures. To deepen her expertise in aesthetic surgery technique, she undertook a fellowship in France — a common pathway for Tunisia's top plastic surgeons, who benefit from the deep academic ties between the Tunisian and French medical systems. This fellowship gave her advanced training in rhinoplasty, facelift surgery, and breast aesthetics, alongside exposure to European standards of pre-operative assessment, surgical planning, and post-operative care. She holds membership in IPRAS, the global umbrella body for plastic surgery societies, and participates in international plastic surgery congresses to remain current with evolving techniques.

Dr. Gharbi Trabelsi's reconstructive surgery practice at Charles Nicolle covers several complex domains. In oncoplastic and post-cancer reconstruction, she performs implant-based and autologous flap-based breast reconstruction for women following mastectomy, aiming to restore breast form and symmetry. In burn reconstruction, she manages complex burn scar contractures — particularly of the face, neck, and hand — using skin grafting, local flaps, and tissue expansion. For congenital deformities, she performs cleft lip and palate repair and manages hand anomalies. Her aesthetic surgery practice encompasses the full range of cosmetic procedures: primary and revision rhinoplasty, facelift and neck lift, blepharoplasty, breast augmentation and reduction, abdominoplasty, and liposuction. She also excises skin tumours and manages the resulting defects using reconstructive techniques. Microsurgical free flap reconstruction is part of her advanced reconstructive toolkit for complex defects.

Dr. Gharbi Trabelsi has contributed to the plastic surgery literature through case reports, surgical technique papers, and outcomes studies presented at meetings of the Société Tunisienne de Chirurgie Plastique et Esthétique. Her research interests centre on optimising outcomes in post-mastectomy breast reconstruction in the North African context — where delayed diagnosis often means more radical mastectomy and more complex reconstruction — and on improving burn scar management techniques for patients with darker skin phototypes, where hypertrophic scarring and keloid formation pose particular challenges. She has also contributed to the debate on rhinoplasty technique for the Arab nose, presenting aesthetic and technical refinements relevant to her primarily Arabic patient population at IPRAS congresses.

Tunisia has established itself as one of the Arab world's foremost destinations for medical tourism, particularly in plastic and aesthetic surgery. The combination of French-trained surgeons, modern hospital infrastructure, Arabic-language communication, cultural familiarity for Arab patients, and costs 40–70% below European equivalents makes Tunis an attractive option for aesthetic procedures including rhinoplasty, breast surgery, facelift, and body contouring. Dr. Gharbi Trabelsi is well placed to serve this international patient population: she is fluent in Arabic, French, and English; operates at Hôpital Charles Nicolle, a nationally recognised centre; and has experience managing patients who travel from Libya, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and sub-Saharan Francophone Africa for planned procedures.

For international patients, Dr. Gharbi Trabelsi offers video consultations for pre-operative assessment, during which she reviews photographs and patient history, discusses the surgical plan, and advises on timing and post-operative care arrangements. She is experienced in structuring treatment visits that minimise in-country stay while allowing safe post-operative recovery. International patients are advised to allow sufficient time for healing before air travel and to arrange appropriate post-operative follow-up with a surgeon in their home country for wound review.

Dr. Gharbi Trabelsi has been recognised by the Société Tunisienne de Chirurgie Plastique et Esthétique for her contributions to the society's scientific programme, including chairing sessions and presenting at the annual congress. Her membership in the International Confederation for Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (IPRAS) reflects her standing in the global plastic surgery community. Within Hôpital Charles Nicolle, she has been commended for her leadership in complex burn reconstruction cases and for her work developing the hospital's oncoplastic surgery programme for breast cancer patients. She is frequently consulted by colleagues for complex cases involving combined aesthetic and reconstructive goals.