Notes Class 8 Chapter 4.2 Balbharati English Maharashtra Board

Revolutionary Steps in Surgery

Surgery dates back to 600 BC.
‘Sushruta Samhita’ is one of the oldest surgical texts in the world.
Sushruta is considered the first surgeon to perform plastic surgery.
Ancient surgeries included tooth extraction and bloodletting.
Lack of knowledge and tools prevented the development of major surgeries for centuries.

Before anaesthesia, surgeries were extremely painful.
General anaesthetics like ether and chloroform were developed in the mid-19th century.
General anaesthesia numbs the entire body.
Local anaesthesia is used for specific parts and is injected near nerves or surgical spots.
Anaesthesia made painless surgeries possible and safer.

Unknown before 1893 due to lack of tools and knowledge.
Heart patients were treated with sedatives and often did not survive.
In 1893, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, an African-American surgeon, performed the first successful heart surgery.
He treated James Cornish, who had a knife wound near his heart.
The wound had cut an artery and punctured the pericardium (the sack around the heart).
Dr. Williams operated with six doctors and saved the patient’s life.
Now, open-heart surgery helps in:
- Repairing heart defects.
- Repairing or replacing heart valves.
- Improving recovery with advanced techniques.

Became a specialty in early 1900s.
Deals with disorders of the nervous system, including:
- Brain,
- Spine,
- Nerves.
Treats people of all ages, including stroke patients.
Dr. Harvey Cushing (1869-1939) is called the father of modern neurosurgery.
Reduced neurosurgery mortality rate from 90% to less than 10%.
Invented the ‘Cushing clip’ (a silver clip) to stop blood loss.
Successfully removed over 2000 brain tumors before retiring in 1937.
Neurosurgery is now one of the most advanced fields of medicine.

A type of minimally invasive surgery.
Uses tiny instruments through small quarter-inch incisions.
Performed with Da Vinci robot – the world’s most advanced surgical robot.
Da Vinci robot has:
- Three robotic arms for surgical tools.
- One arm with a 3D high-definition camera.
The surgeon controls the robot from a console in the operation room.
The robot:
- Copies every movement of the surgeon’s hands.
- Offers better 3D view than the human eye.
- Allows precision and control of movement scale.
Benefits of robotic surgery:
- Less blood loss,
- Smaller cuts,
- Faster recovery,
- Reduced pain.