Medical Science - EARLY SURGERY

Hello Beautiful People,

Today's topic is gonna be quite interesting because every medical student even from school the word surgery meant a lot to them. It's like something interesting like how we dissect the body look inside, fix the problem, study the anatomy of it, and all that,

So let's begin our today's Blog.

Treating illness by using tools to remove or manipulate parts of the human body is an old idea. Prehistoric skulls have been found with holes bored into them - a primitive escape hatch, presumably, for the evil spirits or vapors on which disease was blamed. The Code of Hammurabi, written in the 18th Century B.C. and outlining the laws governing ancient Babylon, included what were perhaps the first penalties for surgical malpractice: Doctors who killed a patient during any surgery or any mistake happens then their hands are cut off.

Given the likelihood of infection at the time, even minor operations carried high risks, but that doesn't mean all early surgery failed. Indian doctors, beginning centuries before the birth of Christ, successfully removed tumors and performed the removal of limbs and other operations. They developed dozens of metal tools, relied on alcohol to dull the patient, and controlled bleeding with hot oil and tar. 

Notable practitioners over the next few centuries included Ambroise Pare in the 1500rs, a surgeon to kings, and an innovator who used ligature, instead of painful cauterization, to tie off wounds. In the late 1700s, English surgeon John Hunter built up extensive experimental knowledge, establishing surgery as a reputable profession. 

But scant knowledge about infection, anatomy and the causes of the disease kept surgery rudimentary until the 19th century when two separate discoveries liberated its potential. William Thomas Morton, in a demonstration at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846, showed how ether could be used as a general anesthetic, relieving the patient's pain and giving the surgeon more leeway. Crawford Williamson Long had performed the first such operation in Georgia several years earlier, but Morton's demonstration helped the concept spread.

Two decades later, Scottish surgeon Joseph Lister, inspired by the bacteriological discoveries of Louis Pasteur, began covering wounds with a germ barrier of carbolic acid. By the end of the century, surgeons had successfully attacked cancers by removing parts of the stomach and bowel, and appendectomy had become the standard treatment for an appendix.

The 20th century brought even more radical change through technology. Surgeons could plan operations using x-rays and other images and could rely on the extreme heat of lasers, the extreme cold of cryogenics, or the small size of fiber optics to perform ever more exacting procedures. It became possible for surgeons to monitor and sustain a patient's breathing and blood flow with advanced machinery. They could also not just remove body parts but replace them either with human substitutes or artificial items manufactured from plastics and metals.

What is LAPAROSCOPY?

GASTRIC BYPASS now requires several small incisions rather than major abdominal surgery.

Advances in fiber-optic technology and the miniaturization of video equipment have revolutionized surgery. Procedures that once required major incisions, general anesthetics, and long recoveries can now be done with local numbing and a small slit or two.

Laparoscopy is performed on major abdominal organs by means of a tube called an endoscope, fitted with a fiber-optic light, a video device, and minuscule surgical instruments. The video device slid into the abdominal cavity through a small incision, provides visual guidance as the surgeon manipulates tools also inserted through small incisions. Tubal ligations, appendectomies, gall bladder removal procedures, and many other operations can now be accomplished through laparoscopy.

Arthroscopy uses similar technologies to examine and treat joints and bones.     

So, Today we had read about the early surgery like how ancient people did it and how it was started and went on. The source for today's blog was Answer Book by national geographic. For further please refer here.

So That's it for Today's Blog

Hope You Like IT.