[The development of osteoplastic surgery in Germany between 1919 and 1939]

The major part of this dissertation deals with the osteoplastic surgery regarding defect gap closure in the mandible. The work describes the surgical techniques, the graft harvesting and placement procedures and different graft types. The final part summarizes the results of the surgical techniques which were reached between the years 1919 to 1939. Two new infection resistant approaches were introduced at a time when the operation technique was the successfully treated free bone graft. Erich Lexer introduced the two-stage surgical procedure. The patient had to wait one year between the first operation and the grafting. Georg Axhausen could shorten the healing period between the two procedures to only a few months. This procedure was terminated once systemic antibotics, such as Sulfonamides, were introduced. The graft immobilisation was completed in different ways. Few surgeons placed the grafts in periosteum envelops. Others inserted and wedged them from higher strenght. The infection resistant approach, ad modum Axhausen, was the only procedure where the graft was secured with wire sutures. The immobilisation of the mandible was always performed with splints.