Heritage, Collaboration, and Innovation: The Developmental Trajectory of Chinese Craniofacial Surgery

The journey of Chinese craniofacial surgery is a testament to resilience, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Its origins trace back to the historic spring of 1977, when Professor Zhang Disheng performed China's first intracranial approach orbital hypertelorism correction at Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital. Operating with rudimentary manual instruments in the absence of electric saws or drills, the metallic clinks against bone symbolized not only medical ingenuity but also the courage to break ideological constraints. This high-risk procedure, conducted under basic anesthetic monitoring, marked the birth of Chinese craniofacial surgery and mirrored the resurgence of post-Cultural Revolution academia. Parallel to Professor Paul Tessier's pioneering intracranial-extracranial approaches, Professor Zhang's breakthrough epitomized Eastern wisdom in surgical innovation.