[Fifty years of plastic surgery in the Netherlands. II. Introduction].

Plastic surgery is a medical specialism that was born out of was surgery. The first famous Dutch plastic surgeon, Esser, operated in Austria and Hungary during World War I. Koch, trained in England during World War II, and companions founded the Dutch Society for Plastic Surgery on October 7th 1950. During the last 50 years plastic surgery has changed into a very divers specialism, which focuses on craniofacial, esthetic, and reconstructive surgery, micro- and hand surgery, trans-sexuality and surgery of congenital abnormalities, especially of the face and hands. Each plastic operation aims at improvement of form and/or function. There have been many developments in all the fields of interest; these will be highlighted in a short series of articles.