The Story of Surgery: An Historical Commentary Book

From the discovery of anesthesia over 150 years ago in Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital to heart transplants and beyond, advances in surgery have had the drama and excitement of a novel. Here is the full, fascinating story of these advances discussed in an eminently readable book. In lively fashion the author describes such outstanding developments as the discoveries of antisepsis and asepsis; techniques that permitted abdominal and brain surgery; the evolution of surgical specialization; and Roentgen's X-rays, critical in the advancement of orthopedics. Surgery is filled with absorbing accounts of surgical triumphs, including the unmasking of appendicitis by the Harvard pathologist Reginald Fitz; the brilliance of Harvey Cushing at Johns Hopkins in establishing neurosurgery; and the work of William Stewart Halsted, also of Johns Hopkins, on hernia surgery and breast cancer. This revised and enlarged edition contains much new material, particularly on abdominal surgery--the sphere of the "general" surgeon--and a full bibliography of some 800 entries.Read More