|
10,000 BC |
Evidence that trepanning was in widespread use. |
|
1500 BC |
First recorded plastic surgery (nasal reconstruction). |
|
c. AD 157 |
Galen appointed as surgeon to the gladiators at Pergamum in western Turkey. |
|
1536 |
Vesalius acquires a skeleton and begins to unravel human anatomy. |
|
1545 |
Ambroise Paré publishes his first Treatise on Gunshot Wounds. |
|
1597 |
Gaspare Tagliacozzi publishes the first-ever book on reconstructive surgery. |
|
1765 |
Tooth transplants from living donors are popular. |
|
1834 |
Robert Liston is appointed professor of clinical surgery at University College Hospital, London. |
|
1846 |
The first operation is carried out with ether anaesthetic. |
|
1847 |
Ignaz Semmelweis successfully combats puerperal fever. |
|
1847 |
James Simpson develops the chloroform anaesthetic. |
|
1848 |
The first death from chloroform is recorded. |
|
1848 |
Phineas Gage survives having an iron rod fired through his head. |
|
1857 |
Louis Pasteur discovers that germs cause living matter to decay. |
|
1865 |
Joseph Lister treats a patient using 'antiseptic' techniques. |
|
1884 |
Rickman Godlee and A. Hughes Bennett perform 'successful' brain surgery. |
|
1894 |
Assassination of French president Sadi Carnot and start of Alexis Carrel's career. |
|
1902 |
Luther Hill conducts successful heart surgery. |
|
1903 |
Gladys Deacon has paraffin wax injection. |
|
1912 |
Alexis Carrel wins Nobel prize. |
|
1917 |
Harold Gillies performs facial reconstruction operations and develops tube pedicle. |
|
1931 |
Harvey Cushing conducts his two thousandth brain tumour operation. |
|
1935 |
Carrel publishes his book on the future of humanity, Man, the Unknown. |
|
1935 |
Egas Moniz performs first 'leucotomy' operation. |
|
1936 |
Walter Freeman and James Watts carry out first lobotomy operation. |
|
1939 |
Archibald McIndoe begins treating Allied casualties. |
|
1943 |
Willem Kolff invents a successful dialysis machine. |
|
1944 |
Dwight Harken cuts into a beating human heart. |
|
1944 |
Death of Alexis Carrel. |
|
1946 |
First female to male sex change operation. |
|
1946 |
Walter Freeman performs the first transorbital lobotomy. |
|
1951 |
Paris surgeons attempt kidney transplant with organs from executed criminals. |
|
1952 |
F. John Lewis carries out the first successful open-heart surgery. |
|
1953 |
John Gibbon performs successful operation using heartlung machine. |
|
1954 |
Walter Lillehei conducts first cross-circulation operation. |
|
1954 |
First successful kidney transplant (between two identical twins). |
|
1955 |
Lillehei and Dick DeWall invent a reliable heart-lung machine. |
|
1955 |
Denis Melrose develops a method of stopping and starting the heart during surgery. |
|
1957 |
Surgeons in Boston use radiation to destroy the immune system in transplant patients with limited success. |
|
1958 |
Denis Melrose performs open-heart surgery on live television. |
|
1960 |
Howard Dully is lobotomized by Walter Freeman. |
|
1964 |
José Delgado stops a rampaging bull by remote control. |
|
1967 |
World's first heart transplant performed by Christiaan Barnard. |
|
1967 |
Freeman performs his last lobotomy. |
|
1970 |
Frank Ervin and Vernon Mark propose using brain implants to suppress violent tendencies in black rioters. |
|
1976 |
Roy Calne begins experiments on cyclosporine. |
|
1978 |
First successful transplants using cyclosporine. |
|
1998 |
Clint Hallam receives the world's first hand transplant. |
|
2001 |
Clint Hallam's hand is amputated. |
|
2005 |
First successful (partial) face transplant. |