[Development of lip reconstructive procedures]

The history of lip repair shows significant parallelism with the evaluation of ideas in plastic and reconstructive surgery. The first attempts were addressed mainly to full-thickness lower lip repair as the resulting labial incompetence was more handicapping. However, techniques and knowledge evolved rapidly to the modern state of the art. Almost all the procedures used today were already described in the early 20th century and their progress based on a profound knowledge of functional anatomy established the principles of labial sphincter dynamic repair by tissue redistribution.