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Abstract

The present study deals with the reconstruction of the mandible on jaw and face injured soldiers in the First World War. The central element of the reconstruction - the bone transplantation - is described on various treatment methods carried out by 66 european surgeons and dentists. The main part of the study shows which kind of material and which operation technique they used and the results they achieved. The end of the study points out the importance of the bone transplantation concept used between 1914 and 1918. By the year 1914, no concept existed for the reconstruction of destroyed mandible. Only through the First World War experience did the free bone transplantation become the best concept of repairing the lower jaw. Shortly after the beginning of the war, the surgeons roughly knew how to get a solid result. Nevertheless, the operators did not fully understand why bone healing could sometimes be established and sometimes not. Only Carl Partsch from Germany assumed that the fracture healing depended on the tight contact between undamaged surfaces of stumps and transplantation pieces.