Reconstructing Faces : The Art and Wartime Surgery of Gillies Pickerill McIndoe and Mowlem

The two world wars played an important role in the evolution of plastic and maxillofacial surgery in the first half of the 20th century. This book is about four of the key figures involved. Sir Harold Gillies and Sir Archibald McIndoe were born in Dunedin; McIndoe and Rainsford Mowlem studied medicine at the University of Otago Medical School, and Henry Pickerill was foundation Dean of the University of Otago Dental School. The author describes how these surgeons revolutionised plastic surgery and the treatment of facial trauma, working on soldiers, fighter pilots and civilians disfigured by bombs, shrapnel and burns. Eventually Gillies et al. were supported by a vast surgical enterprise that included surgeons, dentists, anaesthetists, artists and photographers, nurses and orderlies. The text is fully illustrated with photos, drawings and case notes by the surgeons and war artists at military hospitals at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Aldershot and Sidcup in the First World War, and civilian hospitals at East Grinstead, Basingstoke and Hill End in the Second.

The book includes a DVD of Rainsford Mowlem performing a variety of plastic operations in 1945. This book is a must for anyone interested in the history of medicine and the treatment of casualties in the two world wars.