The History of Surgery

Surgery has come a long way since the days of Hippocrates when operations were often deemed to be the last resort, and doctors preferred to practice conservative measures before reaching for the knife. The past 2000 years have seen huge paradigm shifts in the theories of science and medicine, and surgery has by no means separated from this. Without the advent of germ theory, the discovery of both asepsis and antibiotics, and the development of anaesthesia, surgery as we know it today would simply not exist.