The Rise of Surgery: From Empiric Craft to Scientific Discipline

TLDR

The book surveys the evolution of surgery over centuries, emphasizing the development of urgent disease operations and the historical impact of anesthesia, antisepsis, and antibiotics, while also offering a philosophical perspective from a seasoned educator. It is organized into thematic chapters—such as wound management, debridement, lithotomy, tracheostomy, ectopic pregnancy, and war surgery—bookended by an overview and a retrospective prospect.

Abstract

The Wangensteens have approached this broad subject from a new perspective, a look at the operations performed through the centuries, particularly operations developed for diseases or conditions of urgency. Thus, chapters include "Wound Management in Amputation," "Debridement," "Lithotomy and Lithotomists," "Tracheostomy and Respiratory Obstruction," "Ectopic Pregnancy," "Surgery of War," and 20 other fascinating presentations. The first presentation is entitled "Overview," and the last chapter is "Retrospect and Prospect." While the first chapter gives in capsule form highlights of the importance of anesthesia, antisepsis, and antibiotics, with detailed information to be found in separate chapters, the last chapter gives that special philosophy found only in a surgical educator and research scientist with decades of experience. A "picky" reviewer might fault the authors for being a bit colloquial in the choice of some 20th century historical highlights. But suffice it to say that the original contributions of the Minnesota group during Professor