Perhaps our desire to reshape the world to our taste is the engine of progress. Nature has conceived a gradual, evolutionary development, but how can a person wait? No, we are not waiting for the fruits of evolution, but we are making revolutions! As a true researcher, a person began to reshape the surrounding reality with himself – this is how plastic surgery was born.
Plastic surgery was not born yesterday
To look better than it is is a desire that is very natural for a woman. Recipes for various potions and ointments all over the world were carefully kept and improved, but only plastic surgery was able to radically change the appearance.
In the history of plastics, two surprises await us: first of all, the word “plastic” itself comes from the Greek “plasticos” – “to form”, and that is why it is consonant with the word “plastic” (polymeric material) – after all, it is “formed” before becoming the subject we need.
Another surprise is in the origin of this field of medicine: plastic surgery, a prominent attribute of the Western lifestyle, is commonly believed to have originated … in India. Some techniques were developed as early as 2000 BC and took extremely long to reach Europe: the first publication on Indian techniques dates back to 1794. The first operation performed by an Englishman in Europe according to these techniques dates back to 1815 – Dr. Joseph Karpu spent 20 years in India studying local experience before he ventured to perform the operation himself: he restored the lost nose of a military man using the patient’s own tissues.
Whimsical story
One of the reasons that gave birth to the proper European school of aesthetic surgery was … syphilis, brought from America to Europe in the 16th century: sunken noses and unaesthetic spots were hidden by resorting to chirurgia decoratoria. In the future, various operations were performed most often on men, and such interventions were extremely rare and often deadly.
Wars have always been an accelerator of various discoveries. And since in the entire history of mankind not a single generation could live its short life (up to 30 years) without participating in hostilities, surgeons have always had something to learn. Alas, all their efforts were often useless: the operated patient died either from pain shock or from subsequent infections.
Only after the introduction of antiseptics (disinfectants discovered in 1867) and anesthesia (painkillers invented in 1846) into medical practice, the full development of surgery, including plastic surgery, became possible. Some operations that are popular today have their origins in the 19th century. So, the Berlin surgeon Johann Friedrich von Dieffenbach (1792-1847) specialized in rhinoplasty, and the first dermolipectomy (removal of the abdominal “apron”) was performed by Howard A. Kelly (1858-1943) from Baltimore: in 1899, he removed 6 kg of fat from ” saggy belly” in a lady weighing 129 kg.
Plastic surgery – a bright attribute of the Western lifestyle – originated … in India. Some techniques were developed as early as 2000 BC and took extremely long to reach Europe: the first publication on Indian techniques dates back to 1794.
The twentieth century represents…
However, single records are one thing, and a common practice is quite another. That is why the 20th century, with its rapid industrial growth and a cascade of scientific discoveries, turned out to be revolutionary for medicine in general and fateful for plastic surgery.
Anesthesia in various forms began to be used in surgical operations in the middle of the 19th century, but these were breakthrough attempts, very far from mass distribution. The reason for this was the unreliability of the drugs used: ether was too volatile, chloroform was often fatal, cocaine was expensive … More reliable compounds were invented already in the twentieth century: procaine (1905), eucaine (1900), stowaine (1904), and lidocaine (1943).
The first antibiotic, penecelin, was discovered by Alexander Flemming in 1928. It was only in the 1940s that antibiotics began to be produced industrially and gradually became widely available. Today, antibiotics are a mandatory part of postoperative rehabilitation therapy.
Father of plastic surgery
Harold Gillies, a New Zealander by birth, has worked all his life in London. He was not always the first, but he is credited with transforming individual, rare plastic surgeries into the category of ordinary surgeries that are successfully performed around the world. For his contribution to the development of this branch of medicine, he received the title of knight (Sir) and went down in history as the father of plastic surgery.
The first years of his work as a doctor fell on the First World War. In 1916, Gillis sent a request to the Surgeon General of the Army with a request to organize a department of plastic surgery at the Cambridge Military Hospital. So he headed first the department, and then the Queen Mary Clinic – the world’s first specialized clinic. Over the years of work at the clinic, Gillies and colleagues have performed more than 11,000 operations on almost five thousand patients.
One of the reasons that gave rise to the European school of aesthetic surgery was … syphilis, brought from America to Europe in the 16th century: sunken noses and unaesthetic spots were hidden by resorting to chirurgia decoratoria.
The skill of the surgeon was so high that some patients found the newly created faces more attractive than the “relatives”. So Gillis became famous, which in the 30s led to him a fundamentally new type of patients: completely healthy people set purely aesthetic tasks for him – they wanted to get rid of wrinkles or correct the shape of parts of the face. It was Gillis who developed the circular facelift technology, which is still used in an improved form today. In 1938, he and his cousin, also a surgeon, Archibald McIndoe, published a technique they developed for correcting the shape of the breast – mammoplasty.
Our days, new trends
Since the 50s of the last century, plastic surgery has become an indispensable attribute of the life of stars. When the fashion for the reformation reached mere mortals, orders like “make me the same as a star has such and such!” fell on surgeons. This fashion lasted for many years, creating crowds of “clones” who could not be satisfied with the result – after all, stars with a different appearance appeared in the sky. Fortunately, now the current trend is different: to create such forms that they seem completely natural, to enable each patient to look their best while remaining themselves.
Today, plastic surgery is a large and independent branch of medicine that has become very widespread: in the United States alone, 11 million operations are performed per year….
