Midfacial Approaches

The first rudimentary transfacial approaches were performed in ancient Greece to cure warriors and wrestlers. Aesculapius and Hippocrates reported treatment of people suffering from trauma to the head and face. During the Renaissance period, the practice of anatomy on cadavers led to the meticulous description of the anatomy of the face and its cavities. At the end of the 18th century, Dionis described some techniques to perform maxillofacial resections and, during the 19th century, in relation to the wars that involved all of Europe, interest in this surgery came back again. It was only in the second half of the last century that the modern concepts involved in the performance of maxillofacial surgery were developed. These include an interest in treating tumors involving the paranasal sinuses and skull base extending within the cranium, the opportunity to use prostheses after extensive surgery, and the respect of the different tissue layers during surgery in order to achieve an adequate and optimal esthetic reconstruction of the face. In the 1980s, Curioni introduced the concept of the box in oncological surgery.