The Management of Facial Fractures: The Legacy of William Milton Adams

Dr Adams was one of the most prominent members of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons and served as secretary and president (1954) of the American Society of Plastic Surgery. Although Dr Adams died unexpectedly at 51 years of age (1957), he described many new techniques and published several outstanding and innovating papers. He was the first to report, in 1942, the use of subcutaneous wires for internal fixation of fractures of the upper jaw. The purpose of this historical paper is to point out the contribution of Dr Adams in the evolution of management of facial fractures.