The Evolving History of Surgery
The art of surgery has a long, rich history which to some scholars, predates the middles ages when most surgical processes or treatments resulted in grave infection or death. As the development of technology has become more prevalent across western societies, is is clear that the past hundred years or so proved to be time when surgery progressed at an alarming rate, thus further highlighting the insurmountable amount of medical advancement in the industry.
In the medical industry today, surgery takes a wide variety of forms and is often performed using minimally invasive techniques, which has evolved greatly since even the 19th century from the first blood transfusion in 1818, that took place in Germany. New,
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The first surgical process to ever take place occurred in the year 6,500 B.C.E., when skulls were found in France which resulted from a process called trepanation, that historically involved drilling a hole in the skull. Although scholars or historians are unable to discern what the exact reasoning is that called for this type of hole drilling surgery, this incident without a doubt marked the initial form of surgery ever performed in the history of medicine.
During the 16th century, specifically in the year 1540 C.E., The United Barber-Surgeons Company was formed to perform tooth extractions and blood letting for patients. On the other hand, physicians were considered a different profession and were therefore the only ones who were able to treat illness or disease medicine.
In 1928, antibiotics were discovered for medical use which sparked significant surgical advancements that were created to treat brain tumors, lung, and pancreas. In addition, efforts to improve various surgical processes included accrediting cancer programs and certifying surgeons, with the minimum standards set for surgical residencies in 1937. Below is a simplified timeline illustrating the most celebrated or important medical advancements in the field of surgery in the last fifty-five years.
Timeline (1960’s-present day)
1967 - First successful liver
Surgeons in the time of the civil war would have most likely learned from Samuel Cooper who wrote the book “The First Lines of: The Practice of surgery” written in 1807 along with his other books.
Over the years, surgery has made tremendous progress while changing human perspective; viewed as “no more science than butchery” a couple of centuries ago to now considered to be a solution for many health care problems, such as cancer, heart disease and kidney failure. Nevertheless, surgery has not been perfected to a level that provides great results every time it is performed on patients. For example, surgery done on cancer patients to remove tumors has a forty-five percent success rate (Cancer Research UK, 2013). However, in order to be successful, the surgical procedure has to be performed very precisely. And incomplete removal of tumors can decrease the patient’s survival rate and potential of future build up.
The first applications of plastic surgery have been over 2000 years ago in ancient India, described “Ayur -Veda ". There were attempts to restore noses from the forehead skin, as it was the custom to cut off criminals for punishment ears, nose and lips. First this type of “operation” appeared in 1450 in a similar way in Italy. There, the Sicilian doctor Branca from Catania took the forearm skin for nasal reconstruction.
Surgical Technologists have an important role in the operation room (OR). There are different positions within the Surgical Technology field, including Scrub Surgical Technologist, Circulating Surgical Technologist, and Second Assisting Technologist. Scrub Surgical Technologists have a number of tasks, including prepping the patient for surgery, sterilizing the OR, gown and glove surgeons and assistants, and assists the surgeon and other surgical team members in a number of ways, such as passing instruments and dressing wounds. Circulating Surgical Technologists have a number of tasks as well, including checking patient’s charts, identifying patient and verifying the surgery that will be performed with consent forms, assisting anesthesia
It was not until the development of safe blood transfusions and antibiotics such as penicillin in the early 1940s that surgery became relatively safe.” (R Cooter, 1993, L Davis, 1955, J Duffin, H Ellis, 2001, J Le Fanu, 1999, S H Greenblatt, 1997, R Holmes, 2002, L Klenerman, 2002, C Lawrence, 1992, T Treasure, 2003, R Porter, 1997, F G Slaughter,
Surgery was very different in 1860 compared to what it is know as today. The surgical field really began to build its foundation during the Civil War. The different techniques
In order for physicians to get clinical surgery privileges to perform certain procedures in the realm of their practices, they have to obtain adequate abilities and experiences. There must be a combination of knowledge in theory and experience earned during practical situations. Without a clear confirmation of such combination of theory and practical knowledge, physicians are not in a safe position to perform any procedures. In the hospital setting, physicians must receive the clinical surgery privileges from hospital to perform any procedure there. It is incumbent to hospital to make sure all due diligence is followed by the physician. The hospital must check and cross
The doctors at this time had the capability of controlling bleeding with an apparatus called a tourniquet. As a result, surgeons were equipped with the tools to remove hernias, bladder stones, and hemorrhoids, which had previously never been done before. These surgical advancements increased the chances of survival for patients and the medical tactics used greatly influenced modern medicine. Tourniquets are still used today to quickly stop the bleeding of a patient. Likewise the skill of removing such ailments as bladder stones, was far beyond the understanding of previous eras.
As today’s technology is changing, some of the most major effects of it are superior advances in the medical field. One advance in the medical field is tissue engineering. It is being developed for use in regenerative medicine and soon to be in wider use for other treatments. Tissue engineering’s goal for the future is for the medicine to be able to stimulate other cells around the damage area of the body to get them to grow and produce living tissue (Sciencedaily). Another medical advancement is the monitoring systems and how hospitals can better track for problems and signs of an emergency. This can also help the surgeons decide how to stitch up a patient for best recovery time (Sciencedaily). As technology keeps progressing, another medical advancement is the way surgeons are doing operations. Today, for complex surgeries, surgeons now will get help from the use of a robot for accurate procedures; this will help with the size of the incision and keep the recovery time shorter than during standard surgery.
The 21st century can rightfully be considered as the era of technology when the new inventions and discoveries will most likely affect all the segments of human life. At this point, some of the breakthrough inventions of our times have been in the medical field. Robotic surgery has become an almost common practice in the advanced medical world and new uses for robotic assisted surgery are everyday set in place. However, such developments also attract different interests and implications.
The last great innovation in surgical instruments developed by the Romans was the Bone Drill. Bone drills were commonly used to remove “diseased bone” and tissue from the deeper parts of the body. More importantly, the development of this surgical instrument was monumental in the evolution of surgery due to the fact that it allowed for the conducting of orthopedic surgery, something that was rarely done in previous centuries (Harrison 2013). In summary, the surgical instruments developed during the Roman Age were significant in improving surgical science for the generations
As late as the 19th century, aseptic surgery was not routine practice. Sterilization of instruments began
Technology is transforming the medical field with the design of robotic devices and multifaceted imaging. Even though these developments have made operations much less invasive, robotic systems have their own disadvantages that prevent them from replacing surgeons all together. Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is a broad notion encompassing a lot of common procedures that existed prior to the introduction of robots. It refers to general procedures that keep away from long cuts by entering the body through small, usually about 1cm, entry incisions, through which surgeons use long-handled instruments to operate on tissue inside the body. Such operations are directed by viewing equipment and, therefore, do not automatically need the use of a robot. Yet, it is not incorrect to say that computer-assisted and robotic surgeries are categories that fall under minimally invasive surgery (Robotic Surgery, n.d.).
Many hospitals around the globe are still using invasive techniques mostly known as open surgery because many people can heal from this operation or surgery. This is because small incisions are made not one large one. It is still quiet common to use invasive techniques because it is easier to remove any type of sickness such as
According to Ashish Chandra and Zachary D. Frank, surgeons have been trying to find a more effective method of performing