Three Significant Steps Towards The Miracle Of Modern Surgery - By: Anna Stenning

Surgery, what does it mean to you? Immediately when someone says the word surgery I think of my doctors and booking an appointment, perhaps that's because I'm a mum with children and we always seem to be at the doctor's surgery for some ailment or other, whether that be sore throats, coughs and colds or cut and bruises requiring medical attention due to a over ambitious stunts on their push bikes. However, operations and surgical procedures wasn't the first thing to spring to mind, and yet that is what the term best suits.

Surgery usually applies to procedures which cut through the skin in order to investigate bodily function or treat injury or disease, alternatively invasive procedures to change or improve appearance.

It is thought that surgical procedures have been performed for centuries, with vague references even to basic surgery in prehistoric times, more recently there has been documentation found of surgical procedures dating back at least 3,500 years.

The method used for controlling bleeding prior to modern surgery was cauterisation, sealing of the open blood vessels using extreme heat, this was very effective at the time to stem the bleeding so that patient didn't die prior to surgery and mainly used on battlefields, but because of the crude nature often left limbs without blood supply or circulation, leaving them open to infection, gangrene and ultimately resulting in death. Little was known about the causes of infection therefore treatment was limited and ineffective and pain control hardly existed.

Modern surgery however focused very much on these three main areas, control of bleeding, control of infection and control of pain. Progression and advances in modern medicine and surgery during the past couple of centuries have been made through research and technology providing us with, methods to stop bleeding effectively, whilst maintaining blood supply, pain relief such as anaesthesia and the use of medication also the cure of infection using antibiotics, antibacterial products and hygiene.

There are so many types of surgery now that surgical needs are categorised in order of importance, the most obvious being Emergency surgery. Emergency surgery is performed as fast as possible in order to save lives, prevent loss of limbs or to save as much function as possible following accident, injury or illness. Elective surgery applies to surgical procedures which are not life threatening and often requested by patient or physician and Exploratory Surgery is mainly performed to provide more precise diagnosis. There are however many more types of surgery with these 3 being the main categories.

The area of reconstructive surgery is used in order to correct deformities or mutilations of the anatomy, which have occurred through genetic disorder, illness or injury; however this has opened the door to procedures called plastic surgery.

Plastic surgery is performed by a specialist surgeon to improve appearance, this type of surgery is categorised as elective due to the fact that procedures in most cases are requested rather than needed. Plastic surgery purely enhances parts of the body or face which would otherwise be considered as normal. For instance the popularity of plastic surgery can be seen in the form of breast augmentation, enlargement or reduction, rhinoplasty, abdominoplasty and facelifts.

Plastic surgery is not necessarily performed just for cosmetic reasons though; there are many reasons why a person may elect to have surgery, most being a psychological. Examples of this could be the effects of obesity, many people who have suffered from obesity, who have lost their weight, will, no matter how hard they exercise or diet still be left with excess skin, this can cause psychological scarring. Many women after having babies will be left with a pouch around the abdominal section, again purely due to weight gain and stretching of the skin during pregnancy. Abdominoplasty in these cases would remove more than simply excess skin.

Surgical techniques and procedures whether emergency or elective are advancing with giant steps, we take for granted the miracle of modern medicine, surgery and science which saves so many lives. How many of us owe our wellbeing to the advances of the 3 main aims, control bleeding, control infection and controlling pain.

About the Author

Anna Stenning takes a brief look at the many types of surgery available today, the advances in surgery over time and the progression of modern surgical procedures.

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