This book offers a detailed history of plastic surgery procedures and their development from the ancient world, through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, up to World War II. The origin of plastic surgery is essentially the story of wound management – the frequent struggle that primitive man engaged in to heal his injuries. The narrative chronicles the rise and fall – and rise again – of the discipline through the centuries. It illustrates the birth of modern reconstructive and aesthetic techniques and emphasizes the ingenuity that plastic surgeons demonstrated to improve wound defects and refine facial disfigurements of various origins, congenital or acquired. In addition, the work underscores the enormous impact that the study of human anatomy had on the evolution of surgery. 


Chapters discuss the birth and spread of aesthetic surgery, seldom referenced in modern scientific writing. Richly illustrated with hundreds of images drawn from the personal collection of the primary author, the book is an outstanding contribution to the annals of surgery. Not only does it honor the publications and artworks that have recorded these unique achievements, it also recognizes the great innovators of the past whose reconstructive and aesthetic work forms the basis of today’s surgical successes.


Plastic Surgery – An Illustrated History is a must-have resource for plastic, maxillofacial and aesthetic surgeons. Any student of surgery, medical history, or medical illustration will be interested in this work.