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2600 BCE
Egyptian Time Period
The Egyptians gained their knowledge of anatomy from making mummies. To embalm a dead body they first removed the principal organs, which would otherwise rot. -
2600 BCE
Egyptian Time Period
In Ancient Egypt surgeons treated wounds and broken bones and dealt with boils and abscesses. Egyptian surgeons used clamps, sutures and cauterization. They had surgical instruments like probes, saws, forceps, scalpels and scissors. -
400 BCE
Ancient Greek Time Period
The Greeks had new, iron tools at their disposal, yet the risk of infection or death was still high. Hippocrates' theory of four humors influenced medicine for hundreds of years. He claimed that the humors black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood which coincided with the elements earth, fire, water, and air, respectively exist in the body, and bloodletting or the draining of blood, among other procedures, balanced them. -
300 BCE
Ancient Greek Time Period
The Ancient Greeks also helped to advance surgery. Greek surgeons bathed wounds with wine. (The alcohol helped to prevent infection). A Greek named Herophilus carried out dissections of human bodies in public. He is sometimes called the Father of Anatomy. -
27 BCE
Romans time
Roman surgeons were highly advanced and skilled professionals. A detailed knowledge of anatomy and its functions led to many surgical operations in line with success rates enjoyed in the modern era. Most surgeries in the ancient world were likely of the low impact variety such as tumor removal and hernia operations, while more extensive surgeries certainly occurred under military care. -
1300
Renaissance
Lots of complex surgeries that were performed during the Renaissance resulted in the death of patient, or the worsening of the patient's condition. After people started dissecting humans, their knowledge of disease and cures for the diseases increased greatly. There were a couple surgeries that became popular during the Renaissance. These surgeries were ones for tumors and hernias. -
17th Century
Women continued to train as surgeons throughout the 1500s and 1600s, often treating the poor. In fact they were not pushed out of surgical practice until the 1700s, when surgical training moved to the universities - from which they were banned. -
17th Century
James Molins recorded his anatomical and surgical observations (BL Sloane MS 3293) taken at St. Thomas Hospital in London in 1674. -
18th Century
The years between 1700 and 1799 stand out as important to medical history and surgical advancement because surgeons were willing to attempt amputations as well as complicated and often heroic surgeries on major organs of the body, all without benefit of anesthesia, which did not come along until the nineteenth century. Eighteenth-century surgeons prided themselves on fast amputations. -
18th Century
French surgeon Jean Louis Petit (1674-1750) developed a tourniquet to stop bleeding during an amputation. Petit's tourniquet worked by twisting a screw compressor device that clamped down on the patient's leg and on the lower abdomen. It could stop the blood flow in the main artery and provide for higher leg amputations. Petit's tourniquet is considered by many sources to be one of the "most important surgical advancements before the advent of anesthesia." -
18th Century
John Hunter, known as the Father of Modern Surgery is born. He was a surgeon, founder of pathological anatomy in England, and early advocate of investigation and experimentation. He also carried out many important studies and experiments in comparative aspects of biology, anatomy, physiology, and pathology. -
20th Century
The laser was invented in 1960. In 1964 it was used in eye surgery for the first time. It was invented by Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow.
