Legends Of Surgeryさんのイラストまとめ

Japanese born surgeon Hiroma Shinya (b. 1935) invented the electrosurgical polypectomy snare as a resident in NYC. He performed the first polypectomy by colonoscopy in September of 1969, years before the National Polyp Study (initiated in 1980) linked polyps to colon cancer.

Bezoars, masses of foreign material in the GI tract, can cause obstruction. While they can be made of many different materials, ones made of hair (trichobezoar) that extend from the stomach to the small bowel and even beyond are described as “Rapunzel syndrome”.

Thanks! Apparently ‘hamatus’ is also Latin, meaning ‘hooked’. I wonder why the name change. https://t.co/VKNzxnmjbH

The first recipient of a human blood transfusion was a patient named Brazier, a man with obstructing gastric cancer. English obstetrician James Blundell, with surgeon Henry Cline’s assistance, transfused about 400 mL, on September 26, 1818. The patient died 56 hours later.

On June 7, 1912, German surgeon Alwin von Ach (1875-1924) performed the first esophagectomy w/o thoracotomy, on a 55 y.o. woman. He made a subcostal incision, went across the GE junction, and removed the esophagus through the neck, starting the transhiatal esophagectomy era.

TIL: Inflammation of the glans penis is called balanitis. Why? It comes from the Greek word ‘balanos’ which means acorn, do to the similarity in shape. Now you know!

TIL: the great cerebral vein is also called the vein of Galen, after the Greek born Roman physician (129-200 CE). A rare congenital disorder can occur, known as a vein of Galen malformation (VOGM), an arteriovenous malformation. This can be treated by endovascular embolization.

Bald’s Leechbook is an Old English medical text, likely written in the 9th century. It is mainly an Anglo-Saxon herbarium, but has a chapter on cleft lip surgery. Only one manuscript survives (in the British Library), but is available on line!

Danish born anatomist Jacob Winslow (1669-1760) described the connection between the greater peritoneal cavity and lesser sac (foramen of Winslow). This allows surgeons rapid access to the liver’s blood supply to minimize blood loss in hepatic surgery (the Pringle manoeuvre).

Austrian physiologist Eugen Steinach (1861-1944), in an effort to “rejuvenate” men, developed the Steinach operation, which was just a unilateral vasectomy. He claimed this would increase testosterone production. Famous patients included poet Sigmund Freud and poet W.B. Yeats!