The only alternative, whether the nose was lost to syphilis or the sword, was replacement with a gold nose, too expensive for most people. The astronomer Tycho Brahe had one, as I recall.

The best source for the history of reconstructive plastic surgery, including skin grafts for the nose, is the historical and bibliographical works of the plastic surgeon T.J. "Tom" Patterson. In his own practice at Oxford, he refused to perform cosmetic surgery, instead taking on only the less remunerative but more satifying reconstructive work.

As for anaethesia and antisepsis, laudanum and vinegar can go a long way, but speed was the most important element in successful surgery, so that stitches could be applied as soon as possible. It was this, combined with new methods of entry, that rapidly improved the success rate for lithotomy in the years around 1700.

[The stirrups posture for childbirth was known as the lithotomy position.]

David Harley