Introduction

Authors: Magnus Balslev Avnstorp, MD and Anne Mosebo, Med. Stud.

To become a complete Plastic Surgeon you must know your history. New procedures are introduced every year, but some have been used for centuries.

Plastic Surgery derives from the Greek words ‘plastikē’ (tekhnē) = the art of modelling, and from Cheirourgia; Cheir = hand and ergon = work.¹

This chapter describes how ancient surgery and medicine developed from 6500 years before Christ (BC) into what Plastic Surgery is today.