Cosmetic Surgery Specialists of Memphis, PLLC

Plastic Surgery -
An Historical Timeline

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1646 - In his book, Opera quae exstant omnia,W. Fabry von Hilden, a German surgeon, recounts an case of nasal reconstruction in 1590 by Griffon, a surgeon in Lausanne.  His patient a beautiful virgin reportedly cut off her nose to prevent herself from being raped by a band of soldiers.  Her nose was successfully reconstructed using a flap of skin from her arm.  Griffin learned the technique from a travelling Italian surgeon.

1674 - Description of bacteria by A. van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutchman, using one of the earliest microscopes

1739 John Wesley founds the Methodist Church

1752 – Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod

1756 – Wolfgang Mozart is born

1762 – Catherine becomes Tsarina of Russia

1767 – founding of King’s College (future Columbia University) Medical School in New York - The first Medical School in the American Colonies

1770 – the use of the Hevea brasiliensis tree extract as an eraser is introduced by Joseph Priestly who names the compound rubber

1773 – Boston Tea Party

1776 – American Declaration of Independence

1785 - first lip reconstruction (cheiloplasty) is performed by Chopart. Multiple modifications and innovations followed in the next 200 years by Dieffenbach, V. Ammon, Szymanowski, Nelaton, Delpech, Ombredanne, Sedillot, Bernard, Burow, Estlander, Abbe and others

1788 – Mozart writes his most famous symphonies – No. 40 (G minor) and No. 41 (C major, Jupiter)

1789 – beginning of the French Revolution

1789 – George Washington becomes the first American President

1793 – executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in Paris

1793 – Louvre Museum in Paris is open to the public

1796 – Introduction of immunization (vaccination) by Edward Jenner

1800 – the first electric battery is invented by Alessandro Volta

1803 – the Louisiana Purchase

1804 – Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor Napoleon I

1807 – Slave trade is abolished throughout the British Empire over 50 years before its abolition in the United States

1809 – first lower eyelid reconstruction performed by Graefe. Multiple innovations followed

1814 – Joseph Carpue successfully resurrects the Italian Method of Nasal Reconstruction, using it to build a nose of an army officer who lost it by mercury poisoning

1815 – France prohibits slave trade

1815- Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo

1816 – Cleft of soft Palate successfully repaired by Ferdinand von Graefe

1816 – Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope

1824 – Ludwig van Beethoven finishes his Ninth Symphony

1837 – Victoria becomes Queen of Britain

1839 – Charles Goodyear discovers the vulcanization process, which makes rubber elastic. It revolutionized the rubber industry

1840 – first report of intravascular sclerotherapy of varicose veins

1844 – cleft lip repair with cross flap technique is introduced by Mirault. All modern repair methods evolved from this approach.

1845 – Dieffenbach reconstructs a missing middle third of the ear with an advancement flap

1845 – first reported surgical attempt to correct prominent ears made by Dieffenbach

1846 – Introduction of Ether Anesthesia. Dr. John C. Warren painlessly removes a tumor from the neck of Gilbert Abbot, a 20-year-old painter, under ether administered by Dentist/medical student William Morton.

1848 – Gold Rush begins in California

1848 – Publication of The Communist Manifesto by F. Engels and Karl Marx

1854 – the use of the contralateral leg in reconstruction, the cross-leg flap, is described by Hamilton

1859 – Introduction of Plaster of Paris splints by Mathijsen

1859 – cleft palate repair with bipedicle mucoperiosteal flaps described by von Langenbeck

1859 – the International Red Cross is founded by Swiss banker Jean H. Dunant after he witnessed the horror of the Battle of Solferino (fought between Napoleon III and Austria) 1861 – Abraham Lincoln becomes President and the American Civil War begins 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation abolishes slavery in the United States 1865 - Joseph Lister introduces the antiseptic treatment of wounds 1866 – invention of the clinical thermometer by Thomas C. Allbutt

Lord Joseph Lister

1865 - Joseph Lister introduces the antiseptic treatment of wounds

1866 – invention of the clinical thermometer by Thomas C. Allbutt

1867 – Joseph Lister publishes his experience using the antiseptic treatment of wounds and revolutionizes Surgery. (Among his patients, he performed a mastectomy on his sister, Isabella Lister, using carbolic acid as an antiseptic)

1867 – United States purchases Alaska

1869 – Introduction of small skin grafts by Jacques L. Reverdin

1869 – opening of the Suez Canal

1870 – reconstruction of a scarred lower eyelid (ectropion) with full-thickness skin graft by George Lawson

1870 – New York’s first subway line is opened to the public

1870 – Franco-Prussian War begins

1873 – introduction of the bloodless field technique in hand surgery by von Esmarch

1874 – First Impressionist painting exhibition is held in Paris by Clade Monet and his colleagues

1874 – first successful tendon repair by Koenig

1876 – the first pressure steam sterilizer (autoclave) is introduced by Charles Chamberland

1876 – Chief Sitting Bull and the Sioux kill George Custer and his men at the Battle of Little Big Horn

1880 – Mastectomy for painful large breasts is recommended by Billroth

1881 – sterilization by boiling is introduced

1882 – the Tuberculosis germ is discovered by Robert Koch

1883 – Sickness (medical) Insurance is introduced in Germany

1884 – introduction of local anesthesia by Koller followed by Halsted

1885 – French chemist Louis Pasteur gives the first inoculation against rabies

1886 – John Pemberton, an Atlanta chemist, begins selling an "esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage" containing cocaine, caffeine and kola nut which he called Coca-Cola. (The cocaine was removed in 1903)

1887 – the Z-plasty, an ingenious method of releasing scar contractures by the rearrangement of local tissue is described by Denonvillier

1887 – Nasal surgery using internal incisions is pioneered by John O. Roe and others

1889 – Cecil Rhodes founds British South Africa Company

1890 – Vincent van Gogh dies

1890 – a large abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) is done by Demars and Marx

1894 – Alfred Dreyfus, falsely accused of treason, is tried and deported to Devil’s Island

1895 - X-rays are discovered by Wilhelm Conrad von Roentgen and rapidly introduced into clinical practice

1895 – first surgical attempt at breast reconstruction/augmentation. After removing a large benign breast tumor, Czerny filled the resulting breast defect with a fist-sized fatty tumor (lipoma) he removed from the patient’s back. The improvement was temporary

1896 – the first muscle and skin (myocutaneous) flap- the latissimus dorsi, was described by Iginio Tansini of Pavia, Italy to reconstruct mastectomy wounds. The technique was lost.

1896 – Gugliemo Marconi patents the radio receiver

1896 – gold is discovered in Klondike Creek in the Yukon Territory

1897 – the first technique of breast lift and breast reduction was suggested by Pousson. Many improvements soon followed by Verchere, Morestin, Lexer, Joseph and others

1897 – face masks are introduced in surgery by Johannes Mikulicz-Radecki

1898- vaginal reconstruction for vaginal nonformation (agenesis) is described by Abbe

1898 – Spanish-American War

1899 – Second Boer War

1900 – Frederick S. Kipping creates the first silicon compounds and introduced the name Silicones. Although he found these compounds interesting he did not think they had practical applications

1900 – Boxer Rebellion in China

1901 – The painter, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec dies

1901 – Marconi makes the first transatlantic radio broadcast – the letter "s"

1902 – description of the surgical joining of blood vessels (anastomosis) by Guthrie and Carrell

1903 – further refinements in the correction of prominent ears was reported by Morestin

1903 – first electrocardiograph

1903 – first motor-powered flight made by Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

1904 – the first jail sentence for the crime of speeding in an automobile is handed down in Newport, Rhode Island

1905 – development of first skin graft harvesting blade by Foderl

1905 – rasps and rotating wheels are used to dermabrade acne scars by Kromayer

1906 – Erich Lexer performs one of the earliest facelift operations

1906 – the San Francisco earthquake

1907 – Bone traction screws described by Lambotte

1907 – Erich Lexer becomes the first to use a saphenous vein graft in arterial repair

1907 – the first book on Cosmetic surgery, Cosmetic Surgery:the Correction of Featural Imperfections, is published privately by Charles C. Miller

1911 – the transverse elliptic incision in abdominoplasty is described by A. Morestin

1912 – correction of breast sagging is described by Lexer

1912 – a rib graft is used to repair a mandibular defect

1912 – bony fixation with steel pins is described by Steinmann

1912 – sinking of the British ship Titanic

1913 – introduction of mammography by Salomon in Berlin

1913 – US Congress is empowered to levy income taxes with passage of the 16^th Amendment to the Constitution

1914 – beginning of World War I

1915 – discovery of sodium citrate, a blood preservative, by Richard Lewisohn makes blood banks possible

1915 – Albert Einstein publishes his General Theory of Relativity

1916 – the Battles of Verdun, Jutland and Somme

1917 – the skin tubed flap is described separately by Filatov and then by Gillies

1917 – fat grafts from the abdomen, inner thigh and buttock was used by Bartlett to fill subcutaneous mastectomy defects

1917 – Einstein publishes his Quantum Theory of Radiation which postulated that light can be generated through stimulated rather than spontaneous emission of energy – the basis of laser physics

1917 – Russian Revolution - Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks seize power in Russia

1917 – the British government issues the Balfour Declaration

1919 – Bourguet is first to report correction of eyelid bagginess by removal of the fat out-pouchings. He later becomes the first to publish before- and after photographs and to describe the transconjunctival approach

1920 – a continuous yet hidden facelift incision is introduced by Bettman. A modified incision is still currently used

1920 – (Alcohol) Prohibition begins in the United States

1920 – American women receive the right to vote (passage of the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution)

1935 –an annoyed FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, publishes a warning to surgeons in the American Journal of Surgery after "irresponsible physicians have attempted to alter the facial appearance and finger patterns of known criminals".

1936 – repair of cleft palate with the push-back technique introduced by Veau

1936 – introduction into clinical practice of heparin greatly reduces clotting of repaired blood vessels

1936 – Francisco Franco becomes dictator of Spain in a military coup

1937 – establishment of The American Board of Plastic Surgery

1938 – first report of flap repair of pressure ulcers by Davis

1938 – "Crystal Night" – throughout Germany bands of Nazis destroy Jewish-owned businesses and property and marks the begining of the Nazi Holocaust

1939 – World War II begins after the German invasion of Poland

1939 – introduction of the drum dermatome by Padgett and Hood

1939 – treatment of baldness with hair punch grafts is described by Okuda

1941- Florey and Chain aid in mass-production of Penicillin

1942 – Chin enlargement by sliding horizontal osteotomy is described by Hofer

1943 – Corning Glass Works and The Dow Chemical company join to incorporate Dow Corning Corporation to develop and produce silicon chemistry polymers needed for the war effort

1943 – surrender of German forces at Stalingrad

1944- D- Day – invasion of Normandy

1945 – Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagaski

1946 – the beneficial use of muscle flaps in the treatment of chronic osteomyelitis is described by Stark

1946 – Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals

1947 – Palestine is partitioned by the UN into Arab and Jewish states

1947 – microwaves are discovered by Percy Spencer

1948 – Lidocaine, the most commonly currently used local anesthetic agent, is introduced

1947 – the beneficial effects of correcting traumatic tattoo injuries with dermabrasion is published

1948 – Declaration of the State of Israel

1948 – formation of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

1949 – Closure of Cleft (Hare) Lip with local flaps by Le Mesurier. Many improvements soon followed

1949 – Mao Tse Tung and the communists assume control of China

1950 – start of the Korean War

1951 – description by Castanares of the specific compartments of eyelid (periorbital) fat

1952 – The Spitz-Holter hydrocephalus (silicon) implantable valve shunt which prevents retardation and skull enlargement in cases of excess brain fluid (CSF) is introduced by Dow-Corning

1952 – one of the first sex change (reassignment) operations is performed by Fogh-Anderson

1952 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of Britain

1953 – free dermofat grafts obtained from buttock donor sites are used by Bames to augment breasts

1953 – description of the double stranded helix nature of DNA by Watson and Crick

1954 – first successful kidney transplantation was done by Dr. J. Murray, a Boston Plastic surgeon. Modern transplantation begins

1954 – adjacent abdominal wall dermofat flaps are used by Longacre to augment breasts

1954 – defeat of the French by the communists in Vietnam

1955 – introduction of the Ivalon plastic sponge prosthesis in breast augmentation. These implants became extremely hard and had to be removed

1955 – first successful testing of polio vaccine by Salk

1956 – Soviet Union crushes the Hungarian uprising

1956 – US Supreme Court rules as unconstitutional racial segregation on public buses

1956 – Suez Canal dispute

1957 – first pacemaker

1957 – the Treaty of Rome establishes the European Common Market

1957 – Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the first satellite

1959 – Tanzer builds missing ears (microtia) with a staged approach using an implanted carved rib framework

1959 – Fidel Castro becomes the leader of Cuba

1960 – description of microsurgical technique by Jacobson

1960 – first demonstration of a laser

1961 – building of the Berlin Wall

1961 – Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space

1962 – first successful above-elbow replantation of an upper extremity amputation performed by Ronald Malt in Boston

1962 – the first silicone sac breast implants are used clinically by Frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin of Houston

1962 – the Cuban Missile Crisis

1963 – use of the omentum as a flap in reconstruction of radiation wounds of the chest is described by Kiricuta

1963 – omtental flaps used in breast augmentation by Zavaleta and Marino

1963 – lasers are introduced in retinal detachment procedures in ophthalmology

1963 – President Kennedy is killed in Dallas

1964 – Dow Corning markets the Cronin breast implant

1964 – First work on improving the "Turkey Gobbler" deformity of the Neck is published

1964 – the CO2 laser is built by Patel at the Bell Labs

1965 – the early inflatable breast implants are described by Arion

1965 – first American Marines arrive in Vietnam

1966 – establishment of muscle flap reconstruction by Ralph Ger

1966 – introduction of Medicare

Peter A. Aldea, M.D.       Patricia L. Eby, M.D.
Certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery
Members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons
Fellows of The American College of Surgeons

Cosmetic Surgery Specialists of Memphis, PLLC
6401 Poplar Avenue, Suite 360, Memphis, Tennessee 38119

Telephone (901) 752-1412