The greatest practitioner of plastic surgery in the early decades of the twentieth century was Sir Harold Delf Gillies, a New Zealander living in England, who advocated the treatment of patients with facial injuries in the context of the First World War.
The interest of Sir Harold Gillies, Commander of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in the treatment of nasal deformities and other facial abnormalities led him to become one of the pioneers of facial plastic surgery at the beginning of the 20th century.He is now it considered the father of plastic surgery and sex change.
Despite no formal training in Plastic Surgery, he distinguished himself by treating numerous patients with facial injuries during the First World War.
Gillies developed his interest in facial lesions using a dental approach. He later visited the French plastic surgeon Hippolyte Morestin, who was performing the most advanced reconstructive surgeries of the time at the Val de Grâce Hospital, Paris.
From these experiences, he became aware of the many jaw and cranioencephalic injuries that trench warfare had produced.Between 1917 and 1923, he and his team of surgeons and dentists operated on more than 5,000 patients.
Some of the traumatic lesions had similarities to developmental clefts and other congenital deformities, and thus provided experience for corrective treatment.
After World War I, Gillies was appointed to the clinical staff of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital as one of the few British plastic surgeons of the time, emerging as the leader in his field.
He eventually became a consultant, a top position for a physician in the British health care system, to the Navy, Royal Air Force, Ministry of Health, and six other hospitals.
With the beginning of the Second World War, Gillies converted the private wing of the Park Prewett hospital, Basingstoke, into a plastic surgery hospital with 120 beds. At that time, there were four plastic surgeons in the United Kingdom, with around 60 in the United States.
In 1947, with the founding of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons, Gillies was chosen as its first president. He was awarded honorary degrees at multiple universities and plastic surgery associations all over the world, having travelled extensively throughout South America.
Several surgical instruments were also developed or improved by Gillies, among them forceps, the zygomatic elevator, skin hooks, needle holders and scissors, which remain in use today.
A lifelong smoker, Gillies remained active as a teacher until his death, and died suddenly in 1960, at 78 years of age, from coronary artery disease.
