VIRUS Band 10, pp. 099-109, 2020/08/04
The specific fighting and trench warfare of the First World War resulted infacial injuries, the extent of which shocked doctors. As a result, military leadershipdecided to reform the medical support provided in order to treat the facial injuriesmore efficiently. Confronted with a new situation, maxillofacial doctors developedtreatment methods that made the largest number of soldiers fit for battle as quickly aspossible. From that point, medical support was used as a quantifiable resource and wasactively integrated in warfare. The pressure exerted by the military defined the scopeand therapeutic goal of treatment of facial injuries. Simultaneously, doctors withoptimistic forecasts turned wounded soldiers into calculable resources for the military.The potential ethical conflict of the instrumentalization of medicine during the warwas not addressed. In fact the doctors discussed the benefits of war to the scientificand practical achievements in the area of maxillofacial surgery.
Keywords: First World War, Austria, Medical History, Patient History, Plastic surgery, Facial reconstruction
