Plastic Surgery in World War I [WARNING: Some of the following images might be disturbing!] (10 pictures)
Reconstruction phases of a Willie Vicarage’s jaw after a bullet hit in 1921. Considering the date, that is damned impressive….
Antibiotics had not yet been invented, meaning it was very hard to graft tissue from one part of the body to another because infection often developed.
Traditionally, the edges of facial wounds were simply stitched together, but when scar tissue contracted faces were left twisted and disfigured. Harold Gillies, known as the father of modern plastic surgery, did something different. He rebuilt faces using tissue from elsewhere in the body. [via]
