Cool Facts About Plastic Surgery

Plastic surgery is a field of medicine often dogged with complaints and criticisms from people who see it as a symptom of modern society’s obsession with appearance above all else. However, people have been performing this type of medicine for thousands of years to repair disfigurements.

The ancient Indians were the first to dabble in what today is known as plastic surgery. Sushruta, known to many as “the Father of Surgery” was one of the first to pioneer cataract surgery, restoring clear eyesight to people by performing an operation as far back as the 6th century B.C. The ancient Romans and Egyptians continued the tradition. Doctors in those days were able to perform simple procedures such as the repair of damaged ears. Although Romans and Egyptians did not perform dissections of the human body, they still advanced the knowledge of anatomy. Aulus Cornelius Celsus produced some impressively accurate anatomical descriptions of the genitalia and the skeletal system, both of which are relevant to plastic surgery. In the middle of the 15th century, German plastic surgeon Heinrich von Pfolspeundt documented an operation to replace the nose of an individual that had lost his or her own, using skin from the back of the arm and suturing it in place upon the patient’s face.

Plastic surgery procedures remained uncommon until the mid-nineteenth century with the advent of anesthesia and antiseptic conditions in hospitals. Prior to these innovations, cosmetic surgery simply carried too high a risk of infection to be carried out except in the most extreme circumstances. The first American plastic surgeon was John Peter Mettauer. Mettauer designed his own instruments and carried out the very first repair of a cleft palate in 1827.

Plastic surgery continued to become more and more common leading up to the 20th century, as operations became more and more safe. Major innovations in the field occurred during World War I. Harold Gillies was one particularly noteworthy plastic surgeon who gained much of his experience repairing the faces of soldiers who had suffered burns and other serious facial injuries. Gillies and others who studied and worked with him continued to innovate throughout WW II, and Gillies continued to pioneer in the field of plastic surgery afterwards, becoming the first to perform a female to male gender reassignment surgery in 1946.

Today, a modern doctor has a wide variety of procedures and operations available to them. Reconstructive surgery can restore the appearance of a patient who has suffered a disfiguring injury or burn and can easily correct birth defects such as cleft palates. Elective surgery has become increasingly common as well. Millions of operations are conducted every year in the United States alone, with the purpose of aesthetically improving one body part or another. The most common procedures are breast augmentation, liposuction, nasal surgery, and eye surgery. Plastic surgery, which began as a small part of medicine in ancient India, has grown to be a multi-billion dollar industry practiced in respected hospitals around the world.