Legends Of Surgeryさんのイラストまとめ

The earliest recorded cleft lip repair occurred in 390 BCE. The patient, an 18 y.o. peasant named Wey Young-Chi, was operated on by his governor’s personal surgeon. Wey then joined the Imperial Army, helped suppress a revolt, and became Governor General of 6 provinces!

TIL: The formation of antibodies to specific antigen, called humoral immunity, gets its name from ancient medical beliefs! Hippocrates described 4 vital bodily fluids (humors), and so it was named after antibacterial activity was found in serum components by Hans Buchner.

On July 30th, 1925, Austrian surgeon Felix Mandl performed the world’s first successful parathyroidectomy (under local anesthesia!) The patient was a 38 year old trolley conductor named Albert Gahne. Mandl received the Venia Legendi award for this groundbreaking procedure.

Sir Richard Owen, English anatomist (he coined the term ‘dinosaur’) and Hunterian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons, was first to recognize the parathyroid gland as a unique structure, while dissecting a rhino from the London Zoo who died in a fight with an elephant!

Finally, he also invented the Pirogov amputation in 1854. This was a technique of foot amputation in which the heel is preserved and used as a base. The patient is able to bear full weight on the limb with minimal loss of leg length.

English obstetrician James Blundell (1790-1878) performed the first successful transfusion of human blood in 1825, drawing blood from the husband with a syringe and transfusing it into his wife, to treat post-partum hemorrhage! To avoid clotting, he invented the ‘Gravitator’.

The name ‘linitis plastica’ was first used to describe a thickened, rigid stomach in 1854 by English physician William Brinton. Linitis (inflamed fibrous tissue) and plastica (inelastic). Also called ‘leather bottle’ stomach, we now know this is from diffuse gastric cancer.

English surgeon Sir William Bowman (1816-1892) identified numerous microscopic structures, invented lacrimal probes, joined the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, and founded the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom (now the Royal College of Ophthalmologists).

French surgeon René Leriche (1879-1955) described the symptoms of aorto-iliac occlusive disease in 1923: claudication of buttocks and thighs (from the Latin claudus, meaning lame), absent or decreased femoral pulses, and erectile dysfunction. We now call this Leriche syndrome!

The 1937 painting ‘surgery’ was done by Irish-born South African artist Dorothy Kay. Depicting a cholecystectomy, the focus is on the anesthesiologist and his equipment. The artist added herself to the scene. She is the ‘scrub sister’ on the right.