Category: Surgery
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Sir Benjamin Brodie
JMS PearceHull, England Benjamin Collins Brodie (1783–1862) was born in Winterslow, near Salisbury. His father, Peter Bellinger Brodie, was the local rector. Having graduated from Worcester College, Oxford, he chose to educate Benjamin at home since he was unable to meet the fees of the public schools. Choosing medicine as his career, Benjamin ventured to…
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Do machines dream of the human hand?
Elie NajjarNottingham, United Kingdom Imagine this: a machine that can see your heartbeat, read your spine, and calculate your risk of death better than your doctor can. Now ask yourself: does it understand you? Does it care if you live or die? The question is not whether machines will replace us, but something more unsettling:…
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A hole in the head and a world of skill
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia In the dim confines of a ship’s sickbay during the golden age of piracy, the sound of waves might have been interrupted by the rasp and twist of a surgical drill biting into bone. Trepanning—the act of boring into the skull to relieve the pressure on the brain following head trauma—was…
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Sir James Paget
JMS PearceHull, England James Paget (1814–1899) is remembered for his original accounts of “osteitis deformans,” universally known as Paget’s disease of bone,1 and for his original description of Paget’s disease of the nipple, a sign of intraductal carcinoma.2 He made extensive contributions to pathology3 and to surgery.4 As a student at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, he was…
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A “semi-slaughter and a scandal of surgery”: The first documented tracheostomy in history
Matthew TurnerHershey, Pennsylvania, United States Surgical tracheostomy has been known to humans for thousands of years. The ancient Hindu book of medicine, the Rig Veda, dating to approximately 2000 BC, discusses the healing of throat incisions; the ancient Egyptians may have been aware of the technique as well. According to legend, Alexander the Great used…
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Early depictions of reconstructive surgery: The tubed pedicle flap
Ariana ShaariRutgers, New Jersey, United States The history of head and neck reconstruction is as rich as it is complex. Reconstructive techniques in this domain are broadly categorized as local pedicle flaps, regional flaps, and free flaps.1 These methods trace their origin to ancient practices, with renowned surgeon Sushruta’s use of the forehead flap for…
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The history of operating on the abdomen (laparotomy)
For many centuries, “laparotomy” (derived from the Greek “lapara”, “flank or soft part”, and “tome”, “to cut”) was considered extremely dangerous and rarely attempted. There is a poorly documented report on Jacob Nufer, an Austrian or Swiss veterinarian or even pig farmer, who around the year 1550 saved the life of his wife by removing…
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James Robinson: First anaesthetic in England
JMS PearceHull, England The dramatic benefits of ether anesthesia spread astonishingly quickly from the New World to the Old.1-3 James Robinson (1813–1862), a Guy’s Hospital trained dental surgeon, practiced at 14 Gower Street. A few doors away lived Francis Boott, an American expatriate physician. The Royal Mail steamship Acadia, on 16 December 1846, docked in…