Thomas Kilner

Last updated

Thomas Pomfret Kilner was an early plastic surgeon. One of the four who continued to practice in Britain between the world wars after training at the Queen's Hospital, Sidcup with Harold Gillies. Kilner continued to practice until 1957 [1] The others were Harold Gillies, Arthur Rainsford Mowlem, and Archibald McIndoe. He took a special interest in repairing cleft lips and palate [2] [ full citation needed ] and was appointed in 1944 as Nuffield Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Oxford. [3] He occupied this chair until 1957 when he retired.

Contents

Born, educated and trained in Manchester Kilner saw active service in the R.A.M.C. during the First World War. In 1918 he was stationed at Sidcup alongside Sir Harold Gillies. In 1921 they became the only two surgeons specializing in plastic surgery in Britain until joined later by Archibald McIndoe and Rainsford Mowlem. Kilner later became consulting plastic surgeon to a large number of hospitals. He served in the Second World War as a consulting plastic surgeon and worked at Roehampton which developed into Stoke Mandeville Hospital . Kilner was President of the British Association of Plastic Surgery in 1948 and 1955. . [4]

Early life

Kilner was born on 17 September 1890, the son of a schoolmaster at Manchester Grammar School. He attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn. He studied medicine at Manchester University. Here he won the Dauntesey Scholarship and the Sidney Renshaw Exhibition, as well as medals in anatomy and physiology. He qualified in 1912, with distinctions in surgery and pathology. [5]

Career

Following graduation in 1912, he demonstrated in anatomy and then became a house surgeon. His intended to join Dr Bateman of Blackburn in general practice, but when the First World War intervened he was enlisted in the R.A.M.C.

He rose to the rank of captain, and by 1918 was following general surgery as a career. At the armistice he was in charge of an orthopedic unit for patients with fractured femurs. His was advised he might gain an appointment with Major Harold Gillies in a new hospital unit where a new of specialty, "Plastic Surgery." was being practiced. Though not knowing what this was, Kilner was appointed to the hospital at Sidcup. [6]

Personal life

In 1915 Kilner had married Olive Brown. Their son, Hugh, was born in date. Olive Kilner died when Hugh was an infant of an acute abdominal catastrophe. Hugh qualified in medicine at St Thomas's Hospital but died during service with the Medical Branch of the Royal Air Force. In 1926 Kilner married Florence Brennan (née O'Neill), who survived him. They had one daughter together and brought up Hugh (young "Pomf") together along with their other boys, Peter and Michael, both of whom survived their father. [1]

Death

He died in 1964 having seen the profession go from 1939 when only three London teaching hospitals had appointed consultant surgeons to there being hardly a teaching hospital in the British Isles without a plastic surgeon on the permanent staff on his death. [1]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

Plastic surgery Medical surgical specialty

Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction, or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes craniofacial surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery, and the treatment of burns. While reconstructive surgery aims to reconstruct a part of the body or improve its functioning, cosmetic surgery aims at improving the appearance of it.

Cleft lip and cleft palate Medical condition

A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the palate contains an opening into the nose. The term orofacial cleft refers to either condition or to both occurring together. These disorders can result in feeding problems, speech problems, hearing problems, and frequent ear infections. Less than half the time the condition is associated with other disorders.

Sir Harold Delf Gillies was a New Zealand-born British otolaryngologist and father of modern plastic surgery.

Archibald McIndoe

Sir Archibald Hector McIndoe was a New Zealand plastic surgeon who worked for the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He improved the treatment and rehabilitation of badly burned aircrew.

Oral and maxillofacial surgery Surgical treatment

Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a surgical specialty focusing on reconstructive surgery of the face, facial trauma surgery, the oral cavity, head and neck, mouth, and jaws, as well as facial cosmetic surgery.

Simon Hullihen MD, DDS was a dental surgeon born in Point Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. He completed his medical degree and then was inspired to seek a career in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Regarded as the first oral surgeon in the United States, he helped to develop many modern techniques of maxillofacial surgery and contributed to the establishment of oral and maxillofacial surgery as a surgical specialty.

David Ralph Millard, Jr. was a plastic surgeon who developed several techniques used in cleft lip and palate surgeries. He also popularized the double eyelid surgery or "Asian blepharoplasty" to “deorientalize” patients’ faces while stationed in South Korea during the Korean War. He was chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery at University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine for 28 years, and maintained a private practice in Miami.

Henry Pickerill

Henry Percy Pickerill (1879–1956) was a British born New Zealand dental surgeon and researcher, university administrator and plastic surgeon. Pickerill made major contributions to several fields of dentistry and plastic surgery both in New Zealand and overseas.

Murari Mohan Mukherjee was an Indian plastic surgeon from Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Dr. Chakkiri Balakrishnan (CBK) (1918–1997) was a plastic surgeon from India who was a pioneer of modern plastic surgery in India, when he established second independent Department of Plastic Surgery in India, at the Medical College Hospital, Nagpur, in 1958.

Peter James Taub, MD, FACS, FAAP, is an American Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics, Dentistry, Neurosurgery, and Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as well as Attending Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at the Mount Sinai Medical Center and Elmhurst Hospital Center, all in New York City. He is a diplomate of both the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

H. L. D. Kirkham American plastic surgeon

Harold Laurens Dundas Kirkham was an Anglo-American plastic surgeon. He was the first Professor of Plastic Surgery at Baylor University, Texas and also served with the US Navy Medical Corps, becoming head of plastic surgery at the United States Naval Medical Center San Diego during the Second World War.

The Overseas Plastic Surgery Appeal is a registered charity in the UK, that exists to provide free facial surgery for poor children and young adults in Pakistan. The OPSA team operate on facial abnormalities including cleft lip and palate.

Arthur Rainsford Mowlem

Arthur Rainsford Mowlem (1902–1986), born in New Zealand, was the youngest of the four plastic surgeons who practised in between the world wars in Britain. In 1936, he joined the London based partnership that was started by Sir Harold Gillies and included Sir Archibald McIndoe and Thomas Pomfret Kilner. He continued to practise until his retirement in 1963. During the Second World War he was involved in early bone grafting and took part in early trials for penicillin at his unit in Hill End Hospital, St Albans.

Ravindra Laxman Thatte

Dr. Ravin Laxman Thatte is a doyen a professor in the field of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, a teacher to most plastic surgeons in India, an Indian philosopher and an active environmentalist.

Andrew A.C. Heggie is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. His primary interest has been the management of developmental skeletal facial deformity, including patients with cleft lip and palate, craniofacial microsomia and infants with micrognathism. His contribution to the treatment of infant upper airway obstruction for Pierre Robin sequence, using internal devices for jaw lengthening using distraction osteogenesis, has replaced the need for tracheostomy in this condition. In 2019, Heggie was awarded Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to medicine and dentistry in the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery.

Hirji Sorab Adenwalla was an Indian missionary who joined the Jubilee Mission in Kerala, India, as a surgeon. Adenwalla turned what was originally a small dispensary into a 1500-bedded medical college and research institute called the Jubilee Mission Medical College. Adenwalla specialized in cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries, providing treatment at low or no cost to more than 21,000 patients. Adenwalla contributed several new techniques to the cleft lip surgery, such as a method to avoid a vermillion notch, a protocol for cleft lip nose correction in unilateral cleft lips, and a procedure for septal repositioning.

Ian Fraser Muir MBE, FRCS, FRCSEd was an English plastic surgeon at the West Middlesex Hospital and Mount Vernon Centre for Plastic Surgery. While working there he developed what became known as the 'Muir and Barclay formula' which estimates the volume of fluid replacement required in the initial resuscitation after major burns. In 1969, he relocated to Aberdeen to set up the plastic surgery and burns unit, having been appointed plastic surgeon and senior lecturer in Surgery at the University of Aberdeen. He was elected president of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons

Norman Rowe, was a British oral and maxillofacial surgeon who was a defining influence in the development of oral and maxillofacial surgery in the United Kingdom.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "In Memoriam: Professor T.P. Kilner (1890–1964)". Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 35 (4): 251–4. October 1964. PMC   2311759 . PMID   14245883.
  2. Kilner TP. "Cleft Palate". Speech. 2 (3): 1–9.
  3. "Obituary". The Lancet. 284 (7350): 103–104. 11 July 1964. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(64)90116-3.
  4. "Home - Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online". Royal College of Surgeons of England. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  5. "Thomas Pomfret Kilner, C.B.E., D.M. (Oxon.), F.R.C.S. (Eng.) (1890–1964)". British Journal of Surgery. 51 (12): 945–946. 1 December 1964. doi:10.1002/bjs.1800511220.
  6. Battle R (1964). "Thomas Pomfret Kilner, C.B.E., D.M., F.R.C.S.". British Journal of Plastic Surgery. 17: 330–334. doi:10.1016/S0007-1226(64)80058-8. PMID   14218954.