Harold Delf Gillies was considered by many to be the father of plastic surgery, but far from having been some rich Hollywood based doctor with an A-list clientele, he was actually a pioneering facial reconstruction surgeon in London helping soldiers who were scarred durring WWI and WWII.
In the Wellcome Trust‘s War and Medicine exhibition (running till the 15th of February, 2009) the relationship between war and medicine is charted from the Crimean war in 1854 (the first war covered by journalists) up until the present day.
While at first glance you might not see what war has to do with medicine, it does as our guide through the exhibition explained “force medical professionals to raise their game”. Just think of some war-time medical innovations, like pennicilin which entered into wide use during WWII, estimated to have saved between 12 – 15 per cent of the lives of Allied soldiers during WWII.
But the most interesting exhibit in War and Medicine has to be one about facial reconstruction. Gillies, originally from New Zealand, was the first specialist in facial injuries. Between 1917 and 1925 he did over 11,000 operations on 5,000 serviceman. And far from these being a simple lift or trim like those in cosmetic surgery today Gillies employed dentists, anaesthetists, radiologists and even artists for his work.
What I find particularly fascinating is the pedicle tube technique. A tube pedicle is essentially a flap of skin cut from one part of the body where the skin is undamaged (say the neck) and this is connected to the area to be repaired. The concept wasn’t revolutionary, but Gillies had the idea of actually rolling the skin, so that the outside would essentially be dead skin. This increased blood supply and greatly reduced the risk of infection.
BBC did a particulary insightful documentary on this called Fixing Faces as part of their Blood and Guts – A History of Surgery Series. I’m afraid it’s not available on BBC I-player anymore, but shows like these and exhbitions such as War and Medicine show how quirky and dare-I-say random the history of medicine really is.
Plastic Surgery – nipped and tucked from War
Harold Delf Gillies was considered by many to be the father of plastic surgery, but far from having been some rich Hollywood based doctor with an A-list clientele, he was actually a pioneering facial reconstruction surgeon in London helping soldiers who were scarred durring WWI and WWII.
In the Wellcome Trust‘s War and Medicine exhibition (running till the 15th of February, 2009) the relationship between war and medicine is charted from the Crimean war in 1854 (the first war covered by journalists) up until the present day.
While at first glance you might not see what war has to do with medicine, it does as our guide through the exhibition explained “force medical professionals to raise their game”. Just think of some war-time medical innovations, like pennicilin which entered into wide use during WWII, estimated to have saved between 12 – 15 per cent of the lives of Allied soldiers during WWII.
But the most interesting exhibit in War and Medicine has to be one about facial reconstruction. Gillies, originally from New Zealand, was the first specialist in facial injuries. Between 1917 and 1925 he did over 11,000 operations on 5,000 serviceman. And far from these being a simple lift or trim like those in cosmetic surgery today Gillies employed dentists, anaesthetists, radiologists and even artists for his work.
What I find particularly fascinating is the pedicle tube technique. A tube pedicle is essentially a flap of skin cut from one part of the body where the skin is undamaged (say the neck) and this is connected to the area to be repaired. The concept wasn’t revolutionary, but Gillies had the idea of actually rolling the skin, so that the outside would essentially be dead skin. This increased blood supply and greatly reduced the risk of infection.
BBC did a particulary insightful documentary on this called Fixing Faces as part of their Blood and Guts – A History of Surgery Series. I’m afraid it’s not available on BBC I-player anymore, but shows like these and exhbitions such as War and Medicine show how quirky and dare-I-say random the history of medicine really is.
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