World's 1st plastic surgery done in Kashi 3,000 years ago: AIIMS expert
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, July 15
A top AIIMS expert on Friday said the world’s first plastic surgery was done in Kashi about 3,000 years ago by Sushruta, the father of plastic surgery.
Speaking on the occasion of the 12th National Plastic Surgery Day, Head of Department of Plastic, Reconstruction and Burns Surgery at AIIMS-New Delhi Maneesh Singhal said plastic surgery was India’s gift to the world.
“It is recorded in history that the world’s first plastic surgery was done in Kashi about 3,000 years ago when a person came to Maharshi Sushruta with a severed nose. Sushruta made him consume intoxicants to avert the pain. He then took a part of the skin from the forehead, gauged the shape of the nose through a leaf, constructed the nose with stitches and then attached it to the body. It is further recorded in Sushruta Samhita that Sushruta used 125 different surgical instruments in Sushrut Samhita. The document explains 12 types of fractures and seven dislocations,” said Singhal who is leading a research project on Sushruta.
The occasion was Plastic Surgery Day which AIIMS and the Association of Plastic Surgeons of India marked by way of a unique film festival on top reconstruction procedures across India.
Around 90 plastic surgeons and surgical trainees contributed 120 short films to the festival with three bagging the top awards and another three bagging special awards.
The best movie award went to “Conquering Disability by Plastic Surgery” by Dr Parag Sahasrabudhe from Pune who gave life to teenager Mahesh Patil, detected with bone cancer in his leg and advised amputation. Thanks to plastic surgery, his leg was saved.
Another film “From Despair to Hope” by Dr Subramania Iyer from Kochi, Kerala, told the tale of Manu who lost both his hands in a train accident and was given a new lease of life through hand transplantation.
The third film “Kathrivel” featured how Dr S. Raja Sabhapathy from Coimbatore managed debilitating post burn contractures in a man and restored his dignity.
Among films that won special awards was “Hands that Help” by PGI-Chandigarh’s Sunil Gaba who reattached an amputated hand of inspector Harjeet Singh. Singh had lost his hand in an attack as a frontline worker during Covid 19 duty.
Through films the experts showcased the power of plastic surgery and conveyed that reconstruction procedures were not meant for the wealthy alone.
All beneficiaries of surgical procedures, as captured in the films, were people from humble backgrounds.
Vijay Kumar, APSI secretary, said India has 2500 practising plastic surgeons with 70 medical colleges providing plastic surgical training.
Every year 240 trainees enter plastic surgery training in India and all in all, every day around 7500 plastic surgery procedures are performed. The majority of these – 50 pc involve burns and trauma reconstruction followed by congenital and cleft surgery 10 pc; hand surgery 10 pc, cancer reconstruction 1- pc and cosmetic surgery 20 pc.
