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Hwang. Plast Aesthet Res 2017;4:15-7 Plastic and
DOI: 10.20517/2347-9264.2016.110
Aesthetic Research

www.parjournal.net
Editorial Open Access

Portraits of two innovative plastic surgeons

in the National Portrait Gallery

Kun Hwang
Department of Plastic Surgery, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon 22332, South Korea.

Correspondence to: Dr. Kun Hwang, Department of Plastic Surgery, Inha University School of Medicine, 27 Inhang-ro, Jung-gu, Incheon 22332,
South Korea. E-mail: jokerhg@inha.ac.kr

How to cite this article: Hwang K. Portraits of two innovative plastic surgeons in the National Portrait Gallery. Plast Aesthet Res 2017;4:15-7.
Article history: Received: 29-12-2016 Accepted: 09-01-2017 Published: 22-02-2017

Dr. Kun Hwang is currently a Fellowship Professor, Department of Plastic Surgery, Inha University School of
Medicine and Inha University Hospital. More information could be found at: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1994-2538.

It must at all times be kept in mind that the most World War I (WWI, 1914-1918) was characterized by
important person is first, last, and all the time the trench warfare, during which Combatant’s head and
patient. - Archibald McIndoe neck were exposed to high-energy weapons, resulting
[1]
in severe facial wounds. [3]
As a medical doctor, when I visit a gallery or museum,
I look for portraits of medical doctors. During my Gillies was born in New Zealand and studied medicine
stay in London, I visited the National Portrait Gallery, at Cambridge University. When WWI began, he joined
where I happened to see the portraits of two famous the Royal Army Medical Corps.
plastic surgeons: Sir Harold Delf Gillies (1882-1960,
Figure 1) and Sir Archibald Hector McIndoe (1900- While working in France, Gilllies met French-American
1960, Figure 2). The name “Gillies” caught my eye dentist, Charles Valadier, and learned the basics
because the approach named after him is one of the of repairing jaw injuries, including how to do bone
indirect approaches for the reduction of the zygomatic grafting. After his return to England, he worked at the
arch (Gillies: temporal; Keen: transoral; and Dingman: Queen’s Hospital, which was devoted to facial repairs.
lateral brow). The name “McIndoe” was also familiar He developed many plastic surgery techniques.
because of the “McIndoe operation” for reconstruction From 1917 to 1925, he performed more than 11,000
of the vagina in the congenital absence of the vagina, operations for 5,000 soldiers with facial injuries. His
[4]
using an indwelling skin graft. [2] pre- and postoperative results were drawn by artist

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