The History Book Club discussion

Although of course, this is part of the medical topical area, there is a vast amount of history dedicated to surgery, its origins and its advancements as well as biographies of those who helped develop surgical expertise.

This thread is dedicated to the discussion of that historical development, those ideas and the people who made these breakthroughs possible.

Here is one such book about the father of brain surgery.

Harvey Cushing: A Life in Surgery

by Michael Bliss (no photo)

Synopsis:

Here is the first biography to appear in fifty years of Harvey Cushing, a giant of American medicine and without doubt the greatest figure in the history of brain surgery. Drawing on new collections of intimate personal and family papers, diaries and patient records, Michael Bliss captures Cushing's professional and his personal life in remarkable detail. Bliss paints an engaging portrait of a man of ambition, boundless, driving energy, a fanatical work ethic, a penchant for self-promotion and ruthlessness, more than a touch of egotism and meanness, and an enormous appetite for life. Equally important, Bliss traces the rise of American surgery as seen through the eyes of one of its pioneers. The book describes how Cushing, working in the early years of the 20th century, developed remarkable new techniques that let surgeons open the skull, expose the brain, and attack tumors--all with a much higher rate of success than previously known. Indeed, Cushing made the miraculous in surgery an everyday event, as he and his team compiled an astonishing record of treating more than two thousand tumors. This is the definite Cushing biography, an epic narrative of high surgical adventure, capturing the highs and lows of an extraordinary life

Bentley, a great post!

I don't know about you but I'm also open to alternate surgery, like f.e. aura-surgery.
Here's why:

After watching a TV program about a natural health practitioner in Switzerland helping a man who after suffering an accident which left a large part of his spinal column discs "in disarray". The doctors had given up on him. He had to quit his job, early retirement, and was living in a wheelchair.
He went to this natural healer and after two sessions left his wheelchair for good, went back to work and lives a happy life.

My mom, 86, was suffering from permanent neurodermatitis, had some of her intestines removed because of cancer, was lying on her back for most of the day suffering severe back pain and dementia, could barley get up and stand for more than 10 minutes at a time. The doctors had given up on her.

I took her to this man. He gave her a plastic spinal column to hold and started working on my mom's aura and that plastic column. She felt his pressure in her back and other organs. After about 90 minutes of work my mom could get up all by herself and walk with a stick.
She now runs around the village where she lives 3 hours per day, does all her own grocery shopping, enjoys her new TV set, DVD player etc.etc. - things she could not handle before. Also her handwriting has improved considerably. She laughs about jokes and enjoys her new life.

Yes, I believe that too Andre; there are some things that doctors do not understand about the rehabilitative processes of the human body if given a chance; look at acupuncture, even going to see the chiropractor versus the spine surgeon. Sometimes alternatives and Eastern Medicine do have its benefits.

In your Mom's case, what an amazing story. It is amazing that she has improved so dramatically. And not only physically but mentally. The body and the mind are so intertwined. I am delighted that she is doing better and where would she have been if she did not have your help. When I hear these stories I am always amazed.

Bentley wrote: "Yes, I believe that too Andre..."

Thank you for your nice thoughts, Bentley.
The funny thing was, I almost never watch German TV - except for the news. So there I was waiting for it to start and this 30second trailer for the program comes on... If I wouldn't have been early for the news then my mom, well... I'm happy I did.

This book was published on March 13, 2012, is available for purchase in paperback or e-book, and sounds fascinating. Unfortunately, I am unable to find it on Goodreads.

Our Bodies Belong to God: Organ Transplants, Islam, and the Struggle for Human Dignity in Egypt by Sherine Hamdy

Publishers blurb: "Why has Egypt, a pioneer of organ transplantation, been reluctant to pass a national organ transplant law for more than three decades? This book analyzes the national debate over organ transplantation in Egypt as it has unfolded during a time of major social and political transformation--including mounting dissent against a brutal regime, the privatization of health care, advances in science, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the Islamic revival. Sherine Hamdy recasts bioethics as a necessarily political project as she traces the moral positions of patients in need of new tissues and organs, doctors uncertain about whether transplantation is a "good" medical or religious practice, and Islamic scholars. Her richly narrated study delves into topics including current definitions of brain death, the authority of Islamic fatwas, reports about the mismanagement of toxic waste predisposing the poor to organ failure, the Egyptian black market in organs, and more. Incorporating insights from a range of disciplines, Our Bodies Belong to God sheds new light on contemporary Islamic thought, while challenging the presumed divide between religion and science, and between ethics and politics.

We see them on television every day.....the huge distorted botox lips, the face that looks like it is so tight it will split at any moment.....all in the name of looking younger. In most cases, it is freakish. This book gives us the inside scoop on American's youth cult.

Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession With Cosmetic Surgery

by Alex Kuczynski (no photo)

Synopsis:

A star writer for the New York Times Styles section captures the follies, frauds, and fanaticism that fuel the American pursuit of youth and beauty in a wickedly revealing excursion into the burgeoning business of cosmetic enhancement.

Americans are aging faster and getting fatter than any other population on the planet. At the same time, our popular notions of perfect beauty have become so strict it seems even Barbie wouldn’t have a chance of making it into the local beauty pageant.

Aging may be a natural fact of life, but for a growing number of Americans its hallmarks—wrinkles, love handles, jiggling flesh—are seen as obstacles to be conquered on the path to lasting, flawless beauty. In Beauty Junkies Alex Kuczynski, whose sly wit and fearless reporting in the Times has won her fans across the country, delivers a fresh and irresistible look at America's increasingly desperate pursuit of ultimate beauty by any means necessary.

From a group of high-maintenance New York City women who devote themselves to preserving their looks twenty-four hours a day, to a “surgery safari” in South Africa complete with “after” photographs of magically rejuvenated patients posing with wild animals, to a podiatrist's office in Manhattan where a “foot face-lift” provides women with the right fit for their $700 Jimmy Choos, Kuczynski portrays the all-American quest for self-transformation in all its extremes. In New York, lawyers become Botox junkies in an effort to remain poker-faced. In Los Angeles, women of an uncertain age nip and tuck their most private areas, so that every inch of their bodies is as taut as their lifted faces. Across the country, young women graduating from high school receive gifts of breast implants – from their parents.

As medicine and technology stretch the boundaries of biology, Kuczynski asks whether cosmetic surgery might even be part of human evolution, a kind of cosmetic survival of the fittest – or firmest? With incomparable portraits of obsessive patients and the equally obsessed doctors who cater to their dreams, Beauty Junkies examines the hype, the hope, and the questionable ethics surrounding the advent of each new miraculous technique. Lively and entertaining, thought-provoking and disturbing, Beauty Junkies is destined to be one of the most talked-about books of the season.

The use of robotic surgery is the subject is the subject of this controversial book.

Robotic Surgery

by Farid Gharagozloo (no photo)

Synopsis

Look ahead to the future of surgery--with the first comprehensive robotic surgery reference

Representing a landmark in the medical literature, "Robotic Surgery" is the first complete robotic surgery sourcebook. In its pages, you'll explore the new frontiers of robotic and remote technologies, which bring us closer to the goal of achieving the benefits of traditional surgery with the least disruption to the normal functions of the human body. The authors take you through the fundamental principles of robotic surgery and provide clear instruction on their clinical application.

FEATURES: Up-to-date information and advice on how you can integrate robotic surgery into your clinical practice right now! Edited by experts from the Washington Institute of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery at George Washington University School of Medicine and Hospital, and authored by pioneers in the field of robotics Broad, step-by-step coverage of surgical procedures that spans cardiac, thoracic, general, and urologic surgery, encompassing everything from robot-assisted mitral valve repair to robotic gastric surgery and robotic donor nephrectomy Important focus on how the implementation of robotic surgery principles and procedures leads to improved surgical outcomes Insightful final section that examines the new frontiers of robotic surgery, including the role of robotic surgery during space exploration and the overall future of the specialty

One of the most inhumane surgeries of the modern age (1950s) was "ice pick" surgery in which an instrument resembling an ice pick was inserted in the orbital socket and into the frontal lobe. For more information, go to this link.....it is worth reading and horrifying as it basically scrambled the frontal lobe and turned patients into walking zombies. A very dark period in the history of brain surgery.

http://www.hurherald.com/cgi-bin/db_s...

Great adds Kathy

One of the most controversial and cruel surgeries, the "ice pick" method, created by Dr. William Freeman, was used in an attempt to treat mental illness. (See my post #19) An instrument resembling an ice pick was inserted into the brain through the orbital socket and the frontal lobe was "scrambled" (for lack of a better word). You can imagine the results. This book takes an apologist approach to Dr. Freeman's work and suggests that many patients were left in a better mental condition as a result of the surgery. Ice pick surgery was de rigueur at the mental hospital in my State and the outcomes were horrific. It was eventually outlawed by the Medical Association.


The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness

by Jack El-Hai

Synopsis

The Lobotomist explores one of the darkest chapters of American medicine: the desperate attempt to treat the hundreds of thousands of psychiatric patients in need of help during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Into this crisis stepped Walter Freeman, M.D., who saw a solution in lobotomy, a brain operation intended to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms. Drawing on Freeman’s documents and interviews with Freeman's family, Jack El-Hai takes a penetrating look at the life and work of this complex scientific genius.

The Lobotomist explores one of the darkest chapters of American medicine: the desperate attempt to treat the hundreds of thousands of psychiatric patients in need of help during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Into this crisis stepped Walter Freeman, M.D., who saw a solution in lobotomy, a brain operation intended to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms. Although many patients did not benefit from the thousands of lobotomies Freeman performed, others believed their lobotomies changed them for the better. Drawing on a rich collection of documents Freeman left behind and interviews with Freeman's family, Jack El-Hai takes a penetrating look into the life of this complex scientific genius and traces the physician's fascinating life and work.

How right you are......it was a horror.

Thanks Kathy

Trepanation or trepanning was a forerunner of modern surgery and was practiced for thousands of years. It consisted of boring holes in the skull for various reasons: headache, release of demons, etc. It is amazing that anyone survived it but the study of skulls from archeological digs has shown that some actually did. This practice is still being used in parts of Africa and South America.

Trepanation: History,Discovery, Theory

by Rupert Breitwieser (no photo)

Synopsis:

Cranial trepanation is a fascinating field of study. Although more is known today about its place in human history, never before have those involved in studying these man-made skull openings come together to exchange information and ideas. This volume will look at the history of trepanation, the identification of skulls, the tools used to make the cranial openings, and theories as to why trepanation might have been performed many thousands of years ago. Among the issues addressed are: how trepanation led to modern surgery, the evolution of surgical procedures, the roles of magic, pathology and cranial injuries, future directions for study.

The volume has a cross-disciplinary appeal: chapters will be included from authorities in the field of anthropology, psychology, surgery, medical history, sociology and archeology. Chapters are written by authorities/leaders in the field. No other book is solely on trepanation.

A History of Surgery at Cook County Hospital

by Patrick D. Guinan

Synopsis:

Once upon a time, specifically ranging from 1866 until the end of the 1950s, almost all of the attending staff at Cook County Hospital (CCH)—and thus the instructors who prepared physicians for their roles in the world—were unpaid volunteers. In all large public teaching hospitals, like CCH, appointment to the staff was both an honor and public recognition of the appointee’s status, his or her reputation among his or her peers. Prior to the advent of all-fulltime salaried positions in the 1970s and 1980s, nearly all of the attending staff were non-paid volunteers. Consequently, for all of CCH history up to that point, the list of surgical faculty is a virtual “Who’s Who” of Chicago surgeons.

This book examines the development of the medical disciplines that historically fell under the aegis of the department of surgery at CCH and other similar institutions. The individuals who taught successive new generations of surgeons were not necessarily famed in their time. Already respected, however, they gained legendary status as their former students realized just how effectively these men had taught them. From relevant anecdotes about individual interactions with these instructors to a collection of “quotable quotes” and historical vignettes and personal experiences from physicians and nurses, this books looks at a unique time and collection of individuals who conspired to achieve something remarkable. It is more than a history of a building on Chicago’s west side—it is an inside look at the people who made Cook County Hospital a center of top-flight medical education and world-class care through the years.

Surgery folder

10 Crucial Questions To Ask Before You Undergo Heart Surgery- That Could Save Your Life: A Top MD Shares His 30 Years of Experience - What Every Patient Needs to Ask Before Any Heart Surgery

by Dr. Paul B. Langevin (no photo)

Synopsis:

Hearing that you need a heart operation can be overwhelming for most patients as well as for their families. Even when you may suspect that you have a heart problem, finding out that you need an operation to fix it, is frequently the last thing you expect to hear. It can be terribly difficult to collect your thoughts at such times but it’s really important to do just that. What you don’t know really CAN hurt you. Hopefully this book will provide some insight that will help you evaluate and manage the situation should it ever confront you and it very likely will. Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans. Be your own advocate by being educated.

Henry Marsh's Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery Summary

by Ant Hive Media (no photo)

Synopsis:

‘Do No Harm’ is a book by Henry Marsh, and he reflects on his career mistakes and things he wished he would have done differently. It is a retrospective look on his life and career. It deals with death or disability to some of his patients, despite his best intentions at making them better and taking away their ailments and pain. These unwanted outcomes came from a variety of reasons. Marsh was not affected any differently by a patient’s death, regardless of whether it came from a direct fault of Marsh’s or by other means. Regardless of his decision of treatment for a patient, either one type of treatment versus another or no treatment at all, Marsh took the responsibility on himself personally rather than putting it on fellow staff or the hospital. Marsh developed a trust with his patients, which allowed him to better treat them or formulate a plan by which to treat them.

Surgery, The Ultimate Placebo: A Surgeon Cuts Through the Evidence

by Ian Harris (no photo)

Synopsis:

For many complaints and conditions, the benefits from surgery are lower, and the risks higher, than you or your surgeon think. In this book you will see how commonly performed operations can be found to be useless or even harmful when properly evaluated. That these claims come from an experienced, practicing orthopedic surgeon who performs many of these operations himself, makes the unsettling argument particularly compelling. Of course no surgeon is recommending invasive surgery in bad faith, but Ian Harris argues that the evidence for the success for many common operations, including knee arthroscopies, back fusion or cardiac stenting, become current accepted practice without full examination of the evidence.

Thank you Francie for all of the adds.

An upcoming book:
Release date: March 3, 2020

The Invention of Surgery: A History of Modern Medicine: From the Renaissance to the Implant Revolution

by David Schneider (no photo)

Synopsis:

Written by an author with plenty of experience holding a scalpel, Dr. David Schneider’s The Invention of Surgery is an in-depth biography of the practice that has leapt forward over the centuries from the dangerous guesswork of ancient Greek physicians through the world-changing “implant revolution” of the twentieth century.

The Invention of Surgery explains this dramatic progress and highlights the personalities of the discipline's most dynamic historical figures. It links together the lives of the pioneering scientists who first understood what causes disease, how organs become infected or cancerous, and how surgery could powerfully intercede in people’s lives, and then shows how the rise of surgery intersected with many of the greatest medical breakthroughs of the last century, including the evolution of medical education, the transformation of the hospital from a place of dying to a habitation of healing, the development of antibiotics, and the rise of transistors and polymer science.

And as Schneider argues, surgery has not finished transforming; new technologies are constantly reinventing both the practice of surgery and the nature of the objects we are permanently implanting in our bodies. Schneider considers these latest developments, asking “What’s next?” and analyzing how our conception of surgery has changed alongside our evolving ideas of medicine, technology, and our bodies.

Another:
Release date: February 15, 2022

Empire of the Scalpel: The History of Surgery

by Ira Rutkow (no photo)

Synopsis:

There are not many events in life that can be simultaneously frightening and life-saving as a surgical operation. In America, 37 million major surgical procedures are performed annually yet few of us pause to consider the magnitude of these figures because we have such inherent confidence in surgeons. And, despite passionate debates about healthcare and the endless fascination with medical procedures, most of us have no idea how the first surgeons came to be because the story of surgery has never been fully told. Now, Empire of the Scalpel elegantly reveals the fascinating story of surgery’s evolution from its earliest roots in Europe through its rise to scientific and social dominance in the United States.

From the 16th-century saga of Andreas Vesalius and his crusade to accurately describe human anatomy while appeasing the conservative clergy who clamored for his burning at the stake, to the hard-to-believe story of late-19th century surgeons’ apathy to Joseph Lister’s innovation of antisepsis and how this indifference led to thousands of unnecessary surgical deaths Empire of the Scalpel is both a global history and a uniquely American tale. You’ll discover how in the 20th century the US achieved surgical world supremacy heralded by Harvard’s Francis Moore and his Nobel Prize-winning, seemingly impossible feat of transplanting a kidney, and much more.

Today, the list of possible operations is almost infinite—from knee and hip replacement to heart bypass to fat reduction and rhinoplasty—and Rutkow draws on his sixty-year career to show us how we got here. Comprehensive, authoritative, and captivating, Empire of the Scalpel captures the evolution of surgery in all its dramatic and life-enhancing complexity and shows that its history is truly one awe-inspiring triumph after another.