HISTORICAL EVENTS IN SURGERY

1846:  Anesthesia first used in patient care

1918:  Surgical Leadership and innovation advances in the care of wounded warriors
           during WW1. Dr Franklin Martin, the Mayo brothers, George Crile and
           William Halsted were instrumental in organizing field hospitals for the American
           Expeditionary Force.  Plaster casts were used to treat fractures.  Advances in
           the treatment of open chest wounds and empyema.

1924: Doctors Cole and Graham devise new method (X-rays combined with contrast media)
          to detect gall bladder disease.

1935: "Whipple Procedure" introduced by Allen O. Whipple, M.D. of Columbia University
          was used to treat pancreatic cancer.

1937: "Blood Bank" opens at Cook County Hospital in Chicago under the direction of
          Bernard Fantus, M.D.

1938:  First Congenital Heart Defect (ligation of a patent Ductus Arteriosus) corrected in a 7 year old girl in
           Boston by Robert E. Gross, M.D.

1939: Study published by Alton Oshsner, M.D. and Michael DeBakey linking tobacco use to Lung Cancer.

1939: Segmental lung resection by Edward D. Churchill, M.D. of Massachusetts General Hospital
          to treat tuberculosis.

1940:  Michael DeBakey invents roller pump for a direct donor-to-patient transfusion.

1942: Albumin is used to save burn victims in Pearl Harbor attack.

1942-1945:  Many advances in military medicine: early debridement of contaminated wounds; delayed
                    closure of wounds; improved air evacuation process for treating wounded soldiers.

1945:  "Blue Babies" successfully treated by Alfred Blalock, M.D., Vivien T. Thomas (surgical
            assistant) and Helen Taussig, M.D. (pediatric cardiologist).

1945:  First Surgical Procedure to correct coarctation of the aorta performed by Robert E. Gross, M.D..

1952:  First Open Heart Operation performed by John Lewis at the University of Minnesota.

1953: "Heart-Lung Machine" used to perform open heart surgery

1954: First successful Human Organ Transplant (Kidney) perfomed by Joseph E. Murray, M.D. at
          Boston's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.  In 1990, Dr. Murray received the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

1954:  First Carotid Artery Surgery successfully performed

1954:  First Cross-Circulation Procedure successfully performed in which a patient's father was used as a
           living oxygenator during a procedure on a 13 month old boy.

1959:  Endoscopsy vastly improved through application of Hopkins rod-lens system.

1961:  Successful repair of a brain aneurysms reported by Canadian Neurosurgeon Charles Drake, M.D.

1962:  Hip replacement becomes established procedure with Sir John Charnley, M.D. leading the charge.

1964: First Coronary Artery Bypass graft procedure performed by H. Edward Garrett, M.D. and
          colleagues.

1966: First Gastric By-pass procedure for weight reduction performed by University of Iowa Surgeon,
          Edward E. Mason, M.D.

1966: Prostate cancer treatment discovery captures Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine by Canadian
         Charles Huggins, M.D., professor of Urology at the University of Chicago.

1967: First Liver Transplant performed by Thomas E. Starzl, M.D. at the University of Colorado.

1967: First Human Heart Transplanted by Christiaan Barnard, M.D. in South Africa.

1968:  Infant kept alive through intravenous feeding: Stanley J. Dudrick, M.D. published a benchmark report
           in the J.A.M.A. on the use of intravenous feeding which proved that an infant could receive all
           nutrients by vein and still grow and develop.

1969: Artificial Heart successfully implanted by Denton Cooley, M.D. at Baylor College of Medicine.

1972:  First toe-to-thumb transplant by plastic surgeon Harry J. Buncke, M.D.

1972:  First Cochlear Device implanted by William House, M.D.

1972-1974: U.S. implements Emergency Medical Service System (EMS)

1973: Greenfield Filter introduced by Lazar J. Greenfield, M.D. which allowed trapping of clots
          to prevent pulmonary embolus.

1975: Radical Mastectomy no Longer a Standard Treatment for Breast Cancer

1981:  Burn Patient saved by artificial skin ("Integra")

1985: Robot-assisted surgery debuts to biopsy a brain lesion

1986:  Double Lungs successfully transplanted

1989:  General Surgery Revolutionized by the introduction of Laproscopic Techniques

1991:  Endovascular Technique introduced to repair aortic aneurysms.

1994:  First Face Replant Peformed by plastic surgeon  Abraham G. Thomas, M.D.
           when a 9 year old boy's face and scalp were pulled when caught in a thresher.

2011: Landstuhl Regional Medical Center's Trauma Center in Landstuhl Germany, an overseas military
          hospital treating American civilians and military in Europe achieved a Level I trauma status, the only
          medical center outside the U.S.A. to achieve this status.

2011:  Face Transplant performed in Boston during a 20 hour operation with a 30 member surgical team
           transplanting a new face to Charla Nash who loss her face in a vicious attack by a friend's pet
          chimpanzee.

2012:  Nerve Transfer surgery gives quadriplegic patient partial use of his hand, performed by plastic  
           surgeon Susan McKinnon, M.D. at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.