Johannes F.S. Esser’s lasting inspirations: “To help repair and undo a little part of the cruel mangling”

• Published in: European journal of plastic surgery 2022-06, Vol.45 (3), p.483-493
• Main Authors: Babchenko, Oksana, Black, David A., Marck, Klaas W., McCraw, Cynthia R., McCraw, John B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Paper; Plastic Surgery
• ISSN: 1435-0130; 1435-0130
• DOI: 10.1007/s00238-021-01897-z

    J.F.S. Esser’s “island flap” provided the innovative bridge between the ancient Indian, French, and Italian flaps and modern axial flaps, revolutionizing the scientific principles of reconstructive surgery. Esser performed more than ten thousand complex reconstructions and was recognized as the premier reconstructive surgeon of his time. In recognition of Esser’s extraordinary care of injuries during World War I, plastic surgery was designated as an “autonomous surgical specialty” for the first time. After the war, the press venerated him, as the “Apostle of Plastic Surgery,” for his benevolent care for victims of the Great War. Privately, Esser was an international chess master, a prolific art collector, and an innovative businessman, becoming wealthy through real estate and art. The Second World War, however, deprived Esser of his family, friends, personal fortune, and his dream of an international Institute of Structive Surgery. He died in obscurity and poverty in Chicago in 1946. For the next thirty years following his death, Esser’s island flap reconstructions were mostly forgotten, while plastic surgery pursued random pattern flaps. Level of evidence: Not gradable.