The_Invention_of_Surgery

Implant surgery, such as joint replacement, cardiac stent placement,
lens surgery, and neurosurgical shunts, only became possible about fifty
years ago. Implants, now numbering in the millions per year worldwide,
were unthinkable a century ago, but this modern marriage of science, art,
hubris, imagination, madness, bravery, and patience is nothing short of an
implant revolution.
There are many encyclopedias of surgery and compendia of surgeons’
biographies. There are a few books written in recent decades that truly
bring to life some of the renegades and pioneers who helped make our
world modern. What is missing is a narrative that interconnects those
lives, weaves together their tales, and explains “how we got to now.”
In this book, therefore, I set out to tell the story about the invention of
surgery. In modern historiography, it has become au courant to presuppose
that there are really no “lone geniuses” and almost no “eureka” moments.
That is simply not true in the topic of surgery. There are many virtuosi
who saw further in their underrated genius, challenged the status quo, and
improved the lot of mankind more than in any other field. Here are their
stories.