Paulus Aegineta: The Pioneer of Plastic Surgery Evolution and Comparisons

Abstract

Paulus Aegineta was one of the major representatives of surgery in the Byzantine period. His works had a great influence on Islamic and Western medicine, conveying significant practices, including ???plastic?? surgery, to the subsequent ages. In the present paper we compared Paulus???s Aegineta???s surgical techniques with their respective operations described in Surgical Manuals of the 19th century or thereafter. His methods in surgery remained virtually fadeless for a very long period of time. From the comparisons made we traced many similarities, which lead to the conclusion that for over 1200 years the evolution of this field of surgery, today called ???plastic surgery??, was rather minor. The great evolution of plastic surgery emerged in the second half of the 20th century and particularly the last 20 years, concurrently with the amazing technological progress. We conclude that plastic and reconstructive surgery remained unchanged for many centuries in a neonatal stage. It is probably the technological evolution of the 20th century that changed the rate of development of plastic surgery in our era, converting it to a completely discrete, high-tech specialty, as is today.