The first edition of Fractures of the Facial Skeleton was published in 1955. It was an encyclopedic text encompassing the many problems of trauma to the face, including etiology, surgical anatomy, clinical and x-ray examination, diagnosis, treatment, and preoperative and postoperative care. In addition there were special sections on war wounds, anesthesia, bone growth and healing, associated head and eye injuries, and reparative surgery of the face.
The important story of the establishment of special maxillofacial centers during World War II and the closely coordinated teamwork of specialists in several related fields in these centers has unfortunately been omitted from this edition. Other inauspicious changes have been the deletion of a moderately detailed listing of chapter contents in the Table of Contents and the abbreviation of the very complete index, both of which should be an integral part of an encyclopedic volume such as this. Chapters have been added on