Surgeons Creators - Masters of the Scalpel

Added: 02/02/2006

They are the original "masters" of the scalpel: those select few surgeons that brought surgery out of the ice-age and into the mainstream. Medicine as a science with its extremely important practical application has considerably evolved in the past 50 years. Surgery, as its most important branch, has undergone a number of changes and inventions. Thanks to surgeon creators the most important operations, saving life for thousands of people, are possible now. The names of Svyatoslav Fyodorov and John Heysham Gibbon are known both in medical circles and with public at large.

Surgery is closely connected with engineering since it mostly depends upon instruments and devices. Surgeons creators are also recognized in the field of engineering. We shall start with the name of Svyatoslav Fyodorov, who is one of the most prominent surgeons among surgeons creators. Svyatoslav Fyodorov is a famous Russian ophthalmologist and eye microsurgeon, an inventor of radio keratotomy. He accidentally discovered this method.

He performed an operation of removing particles of glass from the eye by making numerous radial incisions. It turned out that the patient's sight has considerably improved after the operation. So, a surgical procedure is used to decrease nearsightedness. During the procedure, radial incisions are made in the cornea of the eye with a highly precise diamond blade set to a particular depth. The number of incisions and their location is determined by the degree of nearsightedness.

These incisions allow the sides of the cornea to bugle outward and thereby flatten the central portion of the cornea. This brings the focal point of the eye closer to the retina and improves one's distance vision. This method is commonly used nowadays and is considered absolutely safe and reliable. Svyatoslav Fyodorov was duly rewarded by Russian and world medical society. He ran for President, and was a People's Party Deputy.

As mentioned above, the name of John Heysham Gibbon is known among surgeons creators and engineers. John Heysham Gibbon has developed the first heart-lung machine to successfully perform the first open-heart operation in 1953. With the invention of a heart-lung machine surgeons were able to perform surgeries previously considered too risky. Upgraded and improved versions of this machine allow surgeons to repair heart defects and damaged heart valves and to perform bypass surgery and heart transplants.

The invention of this apparatus could be considered accidental. In 1930, having witnessed patient's death from a pulmonary embolectomy, Gibbon conceived the idea of a machine supporting cardiac and respiratory functions during the operation. Gibbon and his wife developed experimental devises that could maintain the mentioned above function for 25 minutes.

In the late 1940s Gibbon managed to persuade IBM president, Thomas J. Watson, to provide him with technical back-up and expertise to construct a more sophisticated device. His first attempt was not successful, a 15 month baby died. But the autopsy showed it wasn't the surgeon's fault. The next operation was a complete success. Gibbon upgraded his device that enabled to perform a bypass surgery.

Inventions in surgery and surgeons creators always turn over new pages in the development of surgical science. They make previously considered impossible things reality, always going on improving both surgical skill and technical side (equipment, devices, machines, etc).

There are lots of prominent surgeons in the history of this science: Christian Barnard, Sir Victor Horsley, Robert Salter, Lars Leksell and others.

Perhaps their names aren't as well known as Michael Jordon or Tiger Woods, but in the field of medicine these men deserve to called "superstars".

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