Reconstruction Surgery of the Orbit

The knowledge of the skeletal anatomy precedes recorded medical history, but the ability to intervene is a product of modern surgical advances. Harold Gillies, while a major in the British army, established not only the foundation for modern plastic surgery, but also describes some of the earliest reconstructive procedures of the face and orbit in his 1920 volume on plastic surgery of the face. While isolated pioneering work was reported in the United States, including orbital translocation surgery by Edgerton at Johns Hopkins, the popularization of craniofacial surgery for congenital defects has been largely the work of Tessler in Paris. Over the last two decades there has been a marked interest in craniofacial reconstructive surgery, often with multidisciplinary teams consisting of ophthalmologists, head and neck, plastic, and neurosurgeons. Craniofacial reconstructive surgery requires a detailed knowledge of the anatomy of the head and neck as well as access to the appropriate diagnostic facilities.