[History of microsurgical reconstruction of the mandible]

Abstract

The history of mandibular reconstruction, initially prosthetic, dates back to Ancient Egypt and China, but developed rapidly and diversified from the 19th century onwards when C. Martin, in 1889 developed his "immediate prosthesis applied to resection of the jaws", while A. Barth, in 1895, performed the first bone grafts. The more recent history of microsurgical reconstruction commenced with free rib transfers in 1977-1978 (Ariyan, Couly). Other microsurgical transfers, either pure bone or composite osteocutaneous, osteoseptal or osteomyocutaneous were then rapidly developed and used with varying degrees of success for mandibular reconstruction: inguinoiliac flap (Talyor and Watson, 1978), dorsopedal flap using the second metatarsal (O'Brien, 1979), forearm flap with the radius (Soutar and Mac Gregor, 1986), lateral brachial flap with humerus (Martin, 1988), free fibular flap (Hidalgo, 1989)... and the story continues.