Twentieth-Century Surgery

Abstract

The twentieth century saw the unequivocal establishment of plastic surgery as a surgical specialty, encompassing reconstructive and cosmetic operations. Societies and associations were founded, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons being the first in 1931, and then later, Vilray Blair was instrumental in the formation of the American Board of Plastic Surgery. However, close on the American’s heels in 1932, the Czechoslovakian government officially recognised plastic surgery as an independent specialty which allowed Burian to employ assistants and to train them so they could be certified as specialists. Two years earlier, Charles University in Prague accepted plastic surgery as a specialty. Great Britain followed in 1946 when the first meeting of the British Association was held. Two years later, it became affiliated to the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Once proper training began, there was a rapid increase of specialists in America but a slow increase in the number of consultant plastic surgeons in Britain during the early years of the National Health Service. In the late 1960s, there were still only about 80 registered specialists, but with the increase in the population, this number has now risen to 1029.