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Medical Specialty

Surgery

Surgical Specialties
Origin Practiced in some form since antiquity; the Edwin Smith Papyrus (c. 1600 BCE Egypt) is among the oldest surviving surgical texts, and the field was transformed into its modern form in the nineteenth century by anesthesia and antisepsis.

Surgery is the branch of medicine that treats disease, injury or deformity by operative manual and instrumental intervention on the body. Its recorded history reaches back to antiquity, from trepanation and Egyptian wound treatises through the anatomical and antiseptic reforms of the nineteenth century that made complex internal operations survivable for the first time. This atlas records what the historical record supports about the fields development and is not medical advice.

Facts
Origin Period
Practiced in some form since antiquity; the Edwin Smith Papyrus (c. 1600 BCE Egypt) is among the oldest surviving surgical texts, and the field was transformed into its modern form in the nineteenth century by anesthesia and antisepsis. 2
Classification
Type/Classification
Surgical Specialty 1
Connections

Associated With

Long-Form Articles

Notable Specialists

Al-Zahrawi, Healers

Al-Zahrawi, author of Al-Tasrif, is called the father of modern surgery.

Ambroise Pare, Healers

Ambroise Pare is regarded as the father of modern battlefield and surgical technique.

Vesalius held the chair of surgery and anatomy at the University of Padua and taught anatomy through public human dissection.

Source WikipediaWikipedia contributors
Galen, Healers

Galen's post as physician to gladiators and his advanced, if animal-derived, work on brain and eye surgery were surgical in nature, though his broader medical writing ranged far beyond surgery alone.

Source WikipediaWikipedia contributors
Hippocrates, Healers

Hippocratic treatises including On Fractures and On the Articulations are among the earliest systematic surgical texts.

Source The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of HumanityRoy Porter
Ibn Zuhr, Healers

Ibn Zuhr was an Andalusian pioneer of experimental surgery.

John Hunter, Healers

John Hunter is regarded as the father of scientific surgery.

Founding physician William Stewart Halsted established the modern American surgical residency system at the hospital.

Source WikipediaWikipedia contributors
Joseph Murray, Healers

Joseph Murray performed the first successful kidney transplant.

Mary Edwards Walker served as a Civil War field surgeon.

Mayo Clinic's founding physicians William James and Charles Horace Mayo built the practice's early reputation on surgical outcomes and pioneered group-practice surgical case review.

Source WikipediaWikipedia contributors

The movement's founding purpose, following Henry Dunant's account of Solferino, was organized care for battlefield wounded, historically a matter of field surgery.

Source WikipediaWikipedia contributors
Source History of the RCS

Theodor Billroth was a pioneering abdominal surgeon, developing the Billroth I and II procedures.

William Halsted, regarded as the father of modern American surgery, developed radical mastectomy and surgical residency training.

Treats

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Medical specialty
WikipediaClassification table
Quote, Classification table
Surgical specialties focus on manually operative and instrumental techniques to treat disease.
View the Source
2. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity
Roy Porter, W. W. Norton and Company, 1997
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source
Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundation
  • Notable Specialists: Mayo Clinic
  • Notable Specialists: Johns Hopkins Medicine
  • Notable Specialists: Red Cross Movement
  • Notable Specialists: Galen
  • Notable Specialists: Andreas Vesalius
View the Source
History of the RCS
Royal College of Surgeons of EnglandNotable Specialists: Royal College of Surgeons of EnglandView the Source
Frequently Asked Questions

How far back does the history of surgery go?

Back to antiquity, including trepanation and Egyptian wound treatises.

Surgery's recorded history reaches back to antiquity, from trepanation and Egyptian wound treatises. The nineteenth century then brought anatomical and antiseptic reforms.

What made complex internal operations survivable?

Nineteenth century anatomical and antiseptic reforms.

The anatomical and antiseptic reforms of the nineteenth century made complex internal operations survivable for the first time.
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