History of rhinoplasty

Abstract

The history of rhinoplasty is the most interesting of all areas of plastic surgery. It can be divided into three periods. The first goes back to the Stone Age, where the earliest records are to be found ; the second includes the time from 1450 to 1860; and the third, the last hundred years. Plastic surgery of the nose was already performed in India and in Egypt between 2500 and 600 B.C. One finds records of this in ancient Indian writings as well as in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Over 2,000 years ago Stsruta Samhita described in his work, the Ayur-Veda, the method used at that time for reconstruction of the nose using skin from the forehead and cheek. The nose, ears, and lips were customarily cut off for particular offenses against law and morality, as well as among prisoners of war. The reconstruction of parts of the body lost in this manner was assigned to the Comaas; this was a caste of potters, who seemed to be predestined to perform this task, probably because of their sense of form and expression, together with their capability of creating sculptures. The Indians even used free skin grafts from the buttocks for the reconstruction of noses.