Aesthetic Plastic Surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correcting and/or restoring form and/or function. The most talked about aesthetic surgery is cosmetic. Surprising to many when first learning this is the fact that most plastic surgery is not cosmetic.
Aesthetic (or plastic) surgery includes reconstructive surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery, and the treatment of burns. Reconstructive surgery was being done in India prior to 800 BC. Sushruta is known as the Father of Surgery. He was a man who made important contributions via authoring the book Susruta Samhita. In this book, he explained over 300 surgical procedures.
Additionally, he mentioned 120 surgical instruments as well as classifying eight categories of human surgery. His medical works were originally written in Sanskrit and were translated into Arabic in 750 AD. Eventually they made found their way into Italy and the Branca family of Sicily, very well known for their involvement in the development of nasal reconstructive surgery.
Walter Yeo was a British soldier severely injured while serving in the British Royal Navy, in which he had enlisted at age 12 as a bugler. At age 17, he was manning guns aboard the battleship HMS Warspite in 1916 when he was wounded. His wounds included losing his upper and lower eyelids.
Sir Harold Gillies performed surgery on Yeo in 1917 making Yeo, according to most experts, the first known person to have benefited from plastic surgery. The picture below depicts Yeo after and before the skin flap procedure.
