The Italian contribution to plastic surgery.

The birth of what we now call plastic surgery dates to the fifteenth century, when the diffusion of nose amputation as a punishment was paralleled by the blossoming of surgical procedures for nose reconstruction. The relationship between the Eastern and the Western world fostered the spreading of the so-called Indian method, based on the use of a forehead flap. This technique was first introduced in Italy by the Branca family from Catania, Sicily. Eventually, a member of this family switched to a different approach to nose reconstruction using a cutaneous arm flap. This "Italian" method was followed and theorized by Tagliacozzi in Bologna. From the nineteenth century, distinguished surgeons like Sabattini, Tansini, Sterzi, Pieri, and more recently, Sanvenero Rosselli, with their pioneering work, substantially improved and helped develop plastic surgery in Italy as we know it today.