History of Facial Plastic Surgery in Iran – ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

Mohsen Naraghi, MD The history of plastic surgery is an interesting and essential field of medicine that can enlighten the path of surgical developments. Archeological discoveries suggest that the outset of plastic surgery dates back to 5,000 years ago in ancient Persia. Thus far, this magnificent history has been studied in different ways. Broadly, the history of plastic surgery in Iran can be categorized into three major eras, namely ancient Persia, post-Islam, and contemporary. The ancient Persian subcategory is a long period between roughly 3000 B.C. and the Arab invasion about 1,400 years ago. The next era is, hereby, called post-Islam. This interval, started by a war imposed on the Sassanid Empire by Arabs, faded several decades ago. The last era began about half a century ago when trained surgeons from around the world entered Iran to share their surgical sciences. Undoubtedly, no precise year or century can be considered as the beginning of the first time period. As archeological evidence from ancient Persia illustrates, about 5,000 years ago, reconstructive surgeries were performed to reconstruct tissue deformities. Hence, this rough date may be considered as the start of the first era. Moreover, there is evidence that Darius the Great (King of Persia 522-486 BC) made an effort to enrich Persian physicians’knowledge in several ways. For instance, he employed hundreds of physicians from Greece and Egypt to educate Persian physicians. Future archeological advances may bring more to light on the nature and quantity of surgical procedures in ancient Persia. The Arab invasion around 1,400 years ago put an end to the first era in the history of plastic surgery in Iran. After that incident and its concomitant book-burning, Arabic became the prevailing scientific language of Persian physicians and philosophers. In this era, great physicians such as Avicenna, Rhazes, Al-Jurjani, and Haly Abbas emerged. Many firsts in the history of medicine and especially surgery took place in this great era. For instance, Avicenna penned more than 450 writings on a wide range of topics. From the surviving works, 150 are on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine. His best-known books are the Book of Healing and Canon of Medicine. Avicenna performed many surgical and medical treatments. For example, he was the first to define tendon repair for the arm. Rhazes is another scientist whose works are still inspiring in many respects. His medical works range from experimental medicine and pediatrics to ophthalmology. Al-Jurjani and Haly Abbas were also great pioneers in describing medical conditions of patients. Many great books written in this period were taught in medieval universities. While there is no clear ending to this period, usually the 1940s is roughly considered to be the outset of contemporary history of plastic surgery in Iran. Many excellent physicians have worked in the modern period. Furthermore, the 1980s may be regarded as a turning point of reconstructive surgery as the Iraq-imposed war on Iran left thousands of wounded soldiers who required reconstructive surgical attention. In the past few decades, aesthetic surgery, especially aesthetic rhinoplasty, has gained momentum. Some writers consider Iran as having the highest rate of aesthetic rhinoplasty in the world. The abundance of aesthetic rhinoplastic patients in clinical settings has led to improvement of knowledge in this field. Many Iranian surgeons have conducted research in this field and their publications inside and outside the country prove this development. In sum, studying the history of plastic surgery in different countries is of great importance to both clinicians and academicians. Hereby, a brief categorization of history of plastic surgery in Iran was performed. Plastic surgery is currently a dynamic field of research in Iran and its future looks bright.