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EW Gillison Emeritus Consultant Surgeon, Kidderminster Hospital, Birmingham, UK Henry Buchwald, MD, PhD Owen H & Sarah Davidson Wangensteen Chair in Experimental Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and President, Central Surgical Association of America
A lively introduction and a guidebook to those pioneers, most of them surgeons, who attempted to help their patients by extending the boundaries of their own knowledge and experience. Before Pasteur and Lister, surgery from the esophagus to the anal canal was extremely dangerous due to ignorance of the causes of infection. Until the advent of anesthesia in 1846, such surgery was limited to the superficial, for example, drainage of abscesses, the reduction of hernias and, sometimes, their repair. Contemporary surgery is the product of the insights and accomplishments of our historical mentors of the subsequent 150 years. In the sixteen chapters of this beautifully produced, large format, hardback book, an international group of twenty-one authors present portraits and illustrations to bring these remarkable pioneers to life. “… a must-read for the medical student and surgical trainee, the professor preparing a lecture or tutorial, the scientific surgeon requiring a starting point for gastroenterology research, and the medical librarian inquiring about the problems the surgical pioneers faced given the facilities and tools available at the time.” Journal of the American College of Surgeons |
