Midface osteotomies lines: Evolution by Paul Tessier, the second Tessier classification

The Tessier collection is an inheritance of a whole career of a surgeon and a life dedicated to cranio-facial malformations. It is a good opportunity to analyse some particular points of the surgical work of Paul Tessier, in particular to understand how the midface advancement procedures were made up and thought out. Medical files, pictures, X-rays and drawings help us to describe step by step the different types of midface osteotomies done by Paul Tessier, from TESSIER I to TESSIER VII osteotomies. The author describes the reason for the surgical lines and their modifications justified by all those files and by Tessier's personal annotations. Based on a single clinical case, Tessier experimented with new surgical procedures, firstly on skulls and dissection then the proposed surgery, the experience of the surgery and the post-operative result for each patient made him decide to change lines and procedures. At each step, the modification was done to improve stability, aesthetics, or to do the procedure in an easier way. Difficulties and mistakes were always new lessons for further patients.