[150 years of the "Handbook of Plastic Surgery"--in memory of Eduard Zeis (1807-1868)].

Even before Joseph Lister (1827-1912) discovered and adopted the concept of antisepsis in 1867, pioneering work in the field of plastic surgery had already begun in Germany very early in the nineteenth century. The best known surgeons working in this field at that time were Karl Ferdinand von Graefe (1787-1840) and Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach (1794-1847) in Berlin and Philipp Franz von Walther (1782-1849) in Bonn and Munich. Three early plastic surgeons who were active in Dresden can and should be compared to them. These are, in chronological order, Johann August Wilhelm Hedenus (the elder; 1760-1834), Friedrich August von Ammon (1799-1861) and Eduard Zeis (1807-1868); Zeis' career is reviewed briefly here with the accent on Dresden. Born in Dresden on 1 October 1807, after finishing his training in 1932 he set up in general practice in his home town. Here he wrote his epoch-making "Handbuch der plastischen Chirurgie" (Handbook of Plastic Surgery; published in 1838), thus establishing the term "plastische Chirurgie", which has been adopted and assimilated into different languages all over the world. The best wishes of his friends went with him when Zeis went to take up the professorship in Marburg. This position did not live up to his expectations, however. In 1849 he returned to Dresden, where he worked until his death as senior medical officer in the newly established municipal hospital in Dresden-Friedrichstadt.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)