A surgeon deals with the treatment of diseases in an operational way. In addition to extensive medical knowledge, the surgeon must have manual skills and mental predispositions, thanks to which he can react quickly in sudden, unforeseen situations - and there can be many such on the operating table.

Chirurgiais a word derived from Greek. Comes from the following words:cheir- hand andergon- deed, action= surgery- manual work, handicraft. Surgery is a branch of medicine that deals with surgical treatment. Surgery developed the most in the nineteenth century, when anesthesia was invented, and doctors, apart from acquiring medical knowledge, began to educate themselves in the field of surgical methods. In the past, operations were performed by artisans, not medics, as it was argued that this was not a job for doctors.

Contents:

  1. Surgery in antiquity and the Middle Ages
  2. Surgery in modern times
  3. Surgery - types of surgery
  4. Surgery - surgical specializations
  5. Surgery - surgical techniques

Surgery in antiquity and the Middle Ages

The history of surgery dates back to ancient times. At that time, it was used mainly for the treatment of injuries and during childbirth, as well as for ritual procedures, e.g. for circumcision (men and women), castration, covering the baby's head with planks to make it take the shape of a tower, or trepanation of the skulls to drive away evil spirits from them.

There have been countries, however, where surgery has reached a higher level. In ancient Egypt, fractures, sprains and dislocations, open wounds and tumors were treated, and basic gynecological and dental procedures were performed. In India, where surgery was the highest level of medical initiation and where, for example, theft was punished with the amputation of the nose (often along with other parts of the face), plastic surgery of the nose, lips and ears, as well as the art of suturing wounds and … intestines, removing stones from the bladder and cataracts. In Greece, it was already known how to proceed, inter alia, with ulcers and fistulas, and it was there that Hippocrates performed the first surgery to cut the trachea, or tracheotomy, and in Rome at that time, hernia operations were performed and developed - due to manymilitary expeditions - military surgery.

In the early Middle Ages, surgery was performed by monks and priests, because they had access to books. However, because the surgery at that time was associated with pain and was in conflict with the idea of ​​Christianity, the clergy handed it over to the so-called wound doctors, barbers (they de alt only with bloodletting, cupping, setting fractures, extracting teeth, applying dressings to fresh wounds) and the so-called bathmen who could perform some of the activities of barbers. In the absence of representatives of the above-mentioned professional groups, surgical procedures were taken over by … executioners.

Wound doctors, however, made sure that surgery was developed further as one of the medical sciences. In 1300, in Paris, it was possible to study surgery at the College of St. Kosma and Damian, and in 1452 in Hamburg the first European guild of surgeons was established - the prototype of the current trade union.

Surgery in modern times

Other achievements related to the development of surgery were the seventeenth-century attempts to administer drugs into the veins and blood transfusions, the formulation in the eighteenth century of the principles of immobilization of all fractures, especially the shoulder joint, and the designation of the site for amputation of the foot.

The first major breakthrough in the history of modern surgery was the use of ether as an anesthetic. This was done for the first time in 1846 in Boston (USA), although introducing the patient into a "different" state of consciousness with the help of, for example, opium or poppy seeds, so that he would not feel pain during the procedure, was practiced already in ancient times and the middle ages. In 1867, the era of antisepsis and bacteriology begins with the carbolic dressing - thanks to Ludwik Pasteur.

The second breakthrough in surgery is the discovery by Alexander Fleming in 1982 of the first antibiotic, Penicillin, and in 1935, sulfonamides, i.e. chemical organic compounds that inhibit the growth of bacteria. From then on, surgery begins to develop more and more dynamically, dividing into narrower and narrower specializations.

Surgery - types of surgery

Surgery is divided into 2 basic types:

  • soft surgery(general) - concerns soft tissue surgery, especially the abdominal wall. A soft surgeon deals with e.g. removal of the appendix, removal of the gallbladder, removal of hernias, cancerous tumors, as well as suturing wounds after accidents, removing skin birthmarks,
  • hard surgery- a hard surgeon deals with surgical treatment of bone tissues, e.g. inserting dentures, fixing fractures and bone damage.

Surgery - surgical specializations

Surgeryis divided into two main parts:

1.general , also known asintroduction to surgery , which concerns, for example, general principles of healing wounds and infections, blood transfusion, nutrition, regulation of the body's electrolyte balance, pre- and postoperative, life-threatening assistance, surgical techniques,

2.detailed , which includes sections of the so-called organ:

  • thoracic surgery - thoracic surgery- surgical treatment of congenital defects and injuries of the chest organs, i.e. lungs, pleura, diaphragm, mediastinum and esophagus, excluding the heart!
  • vascular surgery,
  • cardiovascular surgery - cardiosurgery- surgical treatment of the heart and blood vessels; includes procedures such as bypass implantation, heart valve replacement, aortic aneurysm surgery; a separate section is pediatric cardiac surgery, which deals with the treatment of congenital defects of the cardiovascular system in utero and childhood,
  • urology,
  • maxillofacial surgery- craniofacial surgery,
  • dental surgery- surgical treatment of the oral cavity and adjacent areas,
  • neurosurgery- surgical treatment of defects, damage and diseases of the nervous system, incl. spinal cord, brain, peripheral nerves,

and special departments such as:

  • oncological surgery- surgical treatment of tumors,
  • orthopedics,
  • trauma surgery-traumatology- closely related to orthopedics, deals with the surgical treatment of bones, joints, ligaments, muscles and tendons, broader meaning includes organs outside the locomotor system,
  • organ transplant surgery - transplantology ,
  • bariatric surgery- surgical treatment of obesity.
Do you know that…

…pediatric surgeryis a completely separate section of surgery. A child may only be operated on by a pediatric surgeon in the children's surgery department. An adult surgeon may operate a child only in life-threatening conditions.

Surgery - surgical techniques

The methods of performing surgical procedures are divided into 2 types:

1.invasive , which involve the full opening of the skin to get to the damaged, diseased organ, e.g.laparotomy , i.e. full opening of the abdominal cavity, 2 .minimally invasive , i.e. surgical procedures performed through the natural orifices of the body, e.g.

  • transvaginal technique- getting to the genital organs through the vagina,
  • endoscopic technique(endoluminar) - entering the body through the esophagus;

or by minimal incisions in the shells - e.g.laparoscopic technique .

Bibliography:1. Oskar Pelzer,"Surgery - a repetition for students of the Karkonoski College" , Karkonoskie College in Jelenia Góra, 2008 2 . Janusz H. Skalski, Ryszard W. Gryglewski,"Meritorious for medicine" , Termedia Medical Publishing House, Poznań 2009

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