The assumption that Nofretete was the first
facelifting patient in history will soon be revealed as based on pure
speculation - if reports can be trusted that her mummy has been found. The
ancient Egyptians would however have been able to conduct this kind of
surgery, claims medical historian Prof. Dr. Schadewaldt of Düsseldorf
University.
The idea of lifting facial skin does not
originally come from a surgeon but from an elderly female Polish aristocrat
who, in 1901, asked the Berlin surgeon Eugen Holländer to lift her cheeks
and the corners of her mouth. Today we would say: to conduct facelifting on
her cheeks and the corners of her mouth. She asked him to cut out the skin
elliptically around the ear. It took quite a while before the patient could
convince the surgeon. Several years later Lexer and Joseph conducted the
same kind of surgery called "melo plastic".
The early 20th century also marked the beginning
of face-lifting surgery in the US. The first book on aesthetic facial
surgery ("The Correction of Featural Imperfections") was published in 1907
by Charles C.Miller, a surgeon from Chicago. In 1936, the Czech surgeon
Burian introduced various cutting methods which have become classic
procedures.
The Swedish surgeon Skoog was the first to
conduct clinical surgery on the deeper cheek parts. The anatomic definition
(submuscular aponeurotic system, SMAS) however came from two French
surgeons, Mitz and Peyroni. In this edition we publish an article by
Vladimir Mitz, a plastic surgeon from Paris, about a two-layered method
which he invented and later named "Biplanar Facelift".
Endoscopy, also known as "key hole surgery" is
now called MIS (minimal invasive surgery). 10 years after this method was
introduced to general surgery, plastic surgeons have adopted it too. In MIS,
the surgeon inserts a micro-camera equipped with a light source (3-4 mm
radius) beneath the patient's skin and beneath the bone skin (for example of
the forehead). The monitor shows a ten-times enlarged image. Instead of
making a 20-cm-cut from ear to ear through the forehead's hairy skin, it
merely takes 4-3 minor cuts of 1-2 cm each. This kind of surgery has been
conducted in the US since 1992. Louis Vascomez, Oscar Ramirez, Foad Nahai
(and others) are considered the pioneers in MIS.
Meanwhile also the fourth layer of the
skinperiost (the bone skin) which is the deepest facial layer, has been
discovered for rejuvenation surgery. The first 70 years of the 20th century
were restricted to skin stretching, with or without undermining the skin
which makes it more flexible, more eligible for stretching. These methods
could only be conducted under strict secrecy as they were not yet
established.
I can well image the Berlin surgeon Holländer's
reaction when the Polish aristocrat asked him to perform a "mirror grip"
lifting her skin towards her ear and cutting out the surplus to improve her
looks.
"Dear Lady, this is not what one does. Nobody
has ever done this. Do not expect me to do this." In retrospect Holländer
declared this moment as the victory of the female art of persuasion. There
are strong reasons to believe that this was the first face-lifting operation
in history.
D.Panfilov
