A brief history of the development of plastic surgery in The Netherlands East-Indies from World War I until the independence of Indonesia (1914-1950).
This study of surgical operations published in the Medical Journal of the Netherlands East-Indies over the period 1914-1950, supplemented with a series of interviews with retired Dutch East-Indian surgeons and their relatives, shows a vivid interest in plastic surgery from World War I until the independence of Indonesia. One can conclude that plastic surgery was performed more frequently and on a larger scale than in Holland, due to a larger number of patients, specific tropical pathology and often a longer patient delay, requiring extensive reconstructive procedures. The East-Indian publications on plastic surgical topics outnumber the Dutch ones enormously.
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Municipal Hospital Leyenburg, The Hague, The Netherlands.
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Haeseker
D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000266:history; D013518:Surgery, Plastic / Q000266:history*