Surgery
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Surgery (from the χειρουργική cheirourgikē (composed of χείρ, "hand", and έργον, "work"), via chirurgiae, meaning "hand work") is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.
An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical procedure, operation, or simply surgery. In this context, the verb operate means to perform surgery. The adjective surgical means pertaining to surgery; e.g. surgical instruments or surgical nurse. The patient or subject on which the surgery is performed can be a person or an animal. A surgeon is a person who practises surgery. Persons described as surgeons are commonly physicians, but the term is also applied to podiatrists, dentists (known as oral and maxillofacial surgeons) and veterinarians. A surgery can last from minutes to hours, but is typically not an ongoing or periodic type of treatment. The term surgery can also refer to the place where surgery is performed, or simply the office of a physician, dentist, or veterinarian.
Elective surgery generally refers to a surgical procedure that can be scheduled in advance because it does not involve a medical emergency. Plastic, or cosmetic surgeries are common elective procedures.
History
Surgery is the branch of medicine that deals with the physical manipulation of a bodily structure to diagnose, prevent, or cure an ailment. Ambroise Paré, a 16th century French surgeon, stated that there were to perform surgery: "To eliminate that which is superfluous, restore that which has been dislocated, separate that which has been united, join that which has been divided and repair the defects of nature."
Since humans first learned to make and handle tools, they have employed their talents to develop surgical techniques, each time more sophisticated than the last; however, up until the industrial revolution, surgeons were incapable of overcoming the three principal obstacles which had plagued the medical profession from its infancy — bleeding, pain and infection. Advances in these fields have transformed surgery from a risky "art" into a scientific discipline capable of treating many diseases and conditions.
Timeline of surgical procedures
- c. 1900 Cargile membrane employed by surgeons.
- 1967: First successful heart transplant.
See also
- Surgical horror
- Self-surgery
- Anesthesia
- Biomaterial
- Wound Man (1492)
- Neurosurgery
- Plastic surgery
- Reconstructive surgery
- History of anatomy
- History of medicine
