WOMEN IN SURGERY: A LOOK AT WOMEN IN SURGERY THROUGH TIME ANDACROSS DISCIPLINES

摘要

A history of women in (human) surgery:Veterinary and human medicine have followed parallel paths. Much of veterinary training and certification has been borrowed from human models—the placement of gross anatomy front and center in the curriculum, the culmination of preclinical training withclinical rotations, and the conventions of internship and residency, to name a few. Reviewing the history of medicine is to review our own roots and to gain insights into our own culture and challenges.Surgery, known to have been practiced in some form across civilizations for thousands of years, began as a violent, risky endeavor. Procedures were performed without benefit of anesthesia and without understanding of germ theory. Nonetheless, numerous surgical procedures were documented and practiced. The use of ether was popularized in 1846 by Henry Jacob Bigelow, leading to the first great transformation of medicine. Surgery need not be performed with slashing speed and the aid of several sturdy assistants. Gradually, surgeons abandoned the lightning speed of the preanesthetic era and adopted meticulous technique in the pursuit of more complicated and invasive procedures—despite high mortality rates due to sepsis. Antiseptic (1867) and, later, aseptic surgery were gradually adopted by receptive surgeons, leading to the rapid accumulation of "firsts": the first transabdominal appendectomy (1880), the first thyroidectomy (1880), the first successful removal of a brain tumor (1884), among others. Surgery became useful rather than a tragic, desperate last resort and surgical advances became a dominant force in medical advancement.