Surgery

File:Surgery pd.jpg

A typical modern surgical operation

For other uses, see Surgery (disambiguation).

Surgery (from the Greek cheirourgia meaning "hand work") is the medical specialty that treats diseases or injuries by operative manual and instrumental treatment. Surgeons may be physicians, dentists, or veterinarians who specialize in surgery.

A surgery can also refer to the place where surgery is performed, or simply the office of a physician, dentist, or veterinarian.

History of Surgery

The earliest known surgical procedure is trepanation, which is also known as trephinning or trepanning. In this procedure, a hole is drilled or scraped into the skull, leaving the membrane around the brain intact. A trepanned cranium found near Kiev, Ukraine is the oldest yet found, dating back to 7300-6220 B.C.E. Trepanation attempts to address health problems that relate to abnormal intracranial pressure, and it has been found in cultures around the world. Modern surgery has largely abandoned this practice, although it is still used in cases of acute subdural hematomas and acute epidural hematomas.

Researchers have also uncovered an Ancient Egyptian mandible, dated to approximately 2750 B.C.E. The mandible, having two perforations just below the root of the first molar, indicates the draining of an abscessed tooth. Recent excavations of the construction workers of the Egyptian pyramids also led to the discovery of evidence of brain surgery on a laborer, who continued living for two years afterwards.

The Susrutha is the oldest known surgical text dating back to the 1600s B.C.E., although, it contains information dating back to 3000 B.C.E. It is an ancient Egyptian textbook on surgery and describes in exquisite detail the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of numerous ailments.

Indian physician Jack (about 400 B.C.E.) is an important figure in the history of surgery. He lived, taught, and practiced his art of surgery on the banks of the Ganges in the area that corresponds to the present day city of Benares in North-West India. Because of his seminal and numerous contributions to the science and art of surgery, he is also known by the title "Father of Surgery". Much of what is known about this inventive surgeon is contained in a series of volumes he authored, which are collectively known as the Susrutha Samhita.

Today, surgeons are considered to be specialized physicians. The profession of being a surgeon and that of being a physician have different historical roots, and surgeons have now even subspecialized as have physicians. For example, the Hippocratic Oath warns physicians against the practice of surgery, specifically that cutting persons laboring under the stone, i.e. lithotomy, an operation to relieve kidney stones, was to be left to such persons as practice [it].

By the thirteenth century, many European towns were demanding that physicians have several years of study or training before they could practice. Surgery had a lower status than pure medicine, beginning as a craft tradition until Rogerius Salernitanus composed his Chirurgia, which laid the foundation for the species of the occidental surgical manuals, influencing them up to modern times.

Among the first modern surgeons were battlefield doctors in the Napoleonic Wars who were primarily concerned with amputation. Naval surgeons were often barber-surgeons, who combined surgery with their main jobs as barbers.

In London, an operating theatre or operating room from the day before modern anaesthesia or antiseptic surgery still exists, and is open to the public. It is found in the roof space of St Thomas Church, Southwark, London and is called the Old Operating Theatre.

Development of Modern Surgery

Before the advent of anaesthesia, surgery was a traumatically painful procedure and surgeons were encouraged to be as swift as possible to minimize patient suffering. This also meant that operations were largely restricted to amputations and external growth removals. In addition, the need for strict hygiene during procedures was little understood, which often resulted in life threatening post-operative infections in patients.

Beginning in the 1840s, surgery began to change dramatically in character with the discovery of effective and practical anaesthetic chemicals such as ether and chloroform. In addition to relieving patient suffering, anaesthesia allowed more intricate operations in the internal regions of the human body. Also, the discovery of muscle relaxants such as curare allowed for safer applications.

However, the move to longer operations increased the danger of life threatening complications since the prolonged exposure of surgical wounds to the open air heightened the chance of infections. It was only in the late 19th century with the rise of microbiology, due to scientists like Louis Pasteur, and innovative doctors who applied their findings, like Joseph Lister, did the idea of strict cleanliness and sterile settings during surgery arise. In the United Kingdom, surgeons are distinguished from physicians by being referred to as "Mister." This tradition has its origins in the 18th century, when surgeons were barber-surgeons and did not have a degree (or indeed any formal qualification), unlike physicians, who were doctors with a university medical degree.

By the beginning of the 19th century, surgeons had obtained high status, and in 1800, the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) in London began to offer surgeons a formal status via RCS membership. The title Mister became a badge of honor, and today only surgeons who hold the Membership or Fellowship of one of the Royal Surgical Colleges are entitled to call themselves Mister, Miss, Mrs or Ms.

In contrast, North American physicians and surgeons are always addressed as "Doctor."

Diseases that can be Treated by Surgery

Several diseases can be treated by surgery. A handful of such diseases are listed and/or discussed below.

Intraoperative X-Ray of a Humerus fixated by Kirschner wires

• Trauma
• Anatomical Abnormalities
• Disorders of function
• Inflammation
• Ischaemia and infarction
• Metabolic disorders
• Neoplasia
• Other abnormalities of tissue growth, e.g. cysts, hyperplasia or hypertrophy

Common Surgical Procedures

Of the eight most common surgical procedures in the US, four are obstetric:

• dental extraction,
• episiotomy,
• repair of obstetric laceration,
• cesarean section, and
• artificial rupture of the amniotic membrane.

According to 1996 data from the US National Center for Health Statistics, 40.3 million inpatient surgical procedures were performed in the United States in 1996, followed closely by 31.5 million outpatient surgeries.

Noted Surgeons

For a more complete list, see List of surgeons.

• William Stewart Halsted (initiated surgical residency training in U.S., first too-many-things-to-list)
• Alfred Blalock (first modern day successful open heart surgery in 1944)
• C. Walton Lillehei (labeled "Father of modern day open heart surgery")
• Christiaan Barnard (cardiac surgery, first heart transplantation)
• Walter Freeman (popularized the lobotomy as a legitimate form of psychosurgery)
• Sir Victor Horsley (first physician to remove a spinal tumor by means of a laminectomy)
• Lars Leksell (neurosurgery, inventor of radiosurgery)
• Joseph Lister (discoverer of surgical sepsis; Listerine named in his honour)

List of Surgical Term Roots

Prefixes

• angio- : related to blood vessels
• arthr- : related to a joint
• bi- : two
• colpo- : related to the vagina
• encephal- : related to the brain
• hepat- : related to the liver
• hyster- : related to the uterus
• lapar- : related to the abdominal cavity
• lobo- : related to a lobe (of the brain or lungs)
• mammo- and masto-: related to the breast
• myo- : related to muscle tissue
• nephro- : related to the kidney
• oophor- : related to the ovary
• orchid- : related to the testicle
• vas- : related to the vas deferens

Suffixes

• -centesis: surgical puncture
• -desis : fusion of two parts into one, stabilization
• -ectomy: surgical removal; the term 'resection' is also used, especially when referring to a tumor
• -oid : similar to
• -opsy : looking at
• -ostomy or -stomy: surgically creating a hole (a new "mouth" or "stoma")
• -otomy or -tomy: surgical incision
• -plasty : replacement
• -rrhapy: suture

See also (surgeries)

• List of surgical procedures

Aditya, I realize that this "list of surgical procedures in wikipedia is a very long list, that also includes those in this original list below. If you decide to keep the list of surgical procedures, which is your choice over whether it is important or not, then we need a very brief explanation of what each one is. For example, what does "laparoscopic surgery" refer to? What is lithrotripsy? You can see this very big list of surgical procedures in www.wikipedia.org, under "list of surgical procedures" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surgical_procedures).

• Abdominal surgery-broadly covers surgical procedures that involve opening the abdomen; The three most common abdominal surgeries are exploratory laparotomy, appendectomy, and laparoscopy
• Dental surgery-any number of medical procedures which involve artificially modifying the dentition (the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth)
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery-used to correct a wide spectrum of diseases, injuries, and defects in the head, neck, face, jaws, and the hard and soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial region
• Orthopedic surgery-concerned with acute, chronic, traumatic, and overuse injuries and other disorders of the musculoskeletal system
• General surgery-a surgical specialty that focuses on surgical treatment of abdominal organs, e.g. intestines including oesophagus, stomach, colon, liver, gallbladder and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland (depending on the availability of head and neck surgery specialists) and hernias.
• Laparoscopic surgery- refers only to operations within the abdomen or pelvic cavity belongs to the field of endoscopy and also called keyhole surgery (when natural body openings are not used), bandaid surgery, or minimally invasive surgery (MIS)
• Plastic surgery-general term for operative manual and instrumental treatment which is performed for functional or aesthetic reasons; he principal areas of plastic surgery include the two broad fields of reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery
• Remote surgery-also known as telesurgery; the ability for a doctor to perform surgery on a patient even though they are not physically in the same location; combines elements of robotics, cutting edge communication technology, and elements of management information systems
• Sexual reassignment surgery(SRS)-a term for the surgical procedures by which a person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are changed to that of the other sex
• Vascular surgery-the branch of surgery that occupies itself with surgical interventions of arteries and veins, as well as conservative therapies for disease of the peripheral vascular system
• Neurosurgery-provides the operative and nonoperative management (ie, prevention, diagnosis, evaluation, treatment, critical care, and rehabilitation) of disorders of the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems
• Otorhinolaryngology-branch of medicine that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, throat, and head & neck disorders; the full name of the specialty is otolaryngology-head and neck surgery
• Cardiothoracic surgery- the surgical treatment of diseases that affect organs inside the thorax (the chest), meaning it will generally cover conditions of the heart (cardiovascular disease) and lungs (lung disease)
• Ophthalmic surgery-surgery performed on the eye or its adnexa (the appendages of an organ)

See also

• Biomaterial
• FACS
• Medicine
• Traumatology

External links

• History of Dentistry
• Interview with Dr. Zahi Hawass, Director of the Pyramids
• (German) WikiMed, a wiki with substantial information about surgery
• American Surgical Association

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Surgery  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Surgery"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.