In medicine, a surgeon is a person who performs surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such to remove a diseased organ or to repair a tear or breakage. Surgeons may be medical doctors, dentists, podiatrists or veterinarians. In earlier times there were also people trained solely in removing bladder stones, but at the present day specialised practitioners would have first been trained in one of the professions already mentioned.
Minimally invasive procedures such as the procedures of interventional radiology are sometimes described as "minimally invasive surgery." The field traditionally described as interventional neuroradiology, for instance, is increasingly called neurointerventional surgery.
Robotic surgery is an area of growing interest.
Surgeon titles
- See also: Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery
In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand most attending or consultant surgeons are distinguished from physicians by being referred to as "Mr," "Mrs", "Ms" or "Miss." This tradition has its origins in the 18th century, when surgeons were barber-surgeons and did not have a degree (or indeed any formal qualification), unlike physicians, who were doctors with a university medical degree.
By the beginning of the 19th century, surgeons had obtained high status, and in 1800, the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) in London began to offer surgeons a formal status via RCS membership. The title Mister became a badge of honour, and today after someone graduates from medical school with the degrees MBBS or MB ChB, (or variants thereof) in these countries they are called "Doctor" until they are able, after at least four years training, to obtain a surgical qualification: formerly Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and now Member of the Royal College of Surgeons or a number of other diplomas, they are given the honour of being allowed to revert back to calling themselves Mr, Miss, Mrs or Ms in the course of their professional practice, but this time the meaning is different. Patients in the UK may assume that the change of title implies Consultant status (and some mistakenly think non-surgical consultants are Mr too), but the length of postgraduate medical training outside North America is such that a Mr (etc) may be years away from obtaining such a post: many doctors used to obtain these qualifications in the Senior House Officer grade, and remain in that grade when they began subspecialty training. By contrast, North American physicians and surgeons are always addressed as "Doctor."
Surgical specialties and allied fields
Some medical doctors who are general practitioners or specialists in family medicine or emergency medicine may perform limited ranges of minor, common, or emergency surgery. Anesthesia often accompanies surgery, and anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists may oversee this aspect of surgery. First assistants, surgical nurses, surgical technologists and operating department practitioners are trained professionals who support surgeons.
Salary
The salary for a surgeon depends on the specific speciality of surgery.
Noted surgeons
-
- Sushruta (the first to document an operation of open rhinoplasty[3])
- Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (considered the father of modern surgery,[4])
- Charles Kelman (Invented phacoemulsification, the technique of modern cataract surgery)
- William Stewart Halsted (initiated surgical residency training in U.S., pioneer in many fields)
- Alfred Blalock (first modern day successful open heart surgery in 1944)
- C. Walton Lillehei (labeled "Father of modern day open heart surgery")
- Christiaan Barnard (cardiac surgery, first heart transplantation)
- Victor Chang Australian pioneer of heart transplantation
- Walter Freeman (psychiatrist: deviser/proponent of the office lobotomy)
- John Hunter (Scottish, viewed as the father of modern surgery, performed hundreds of dissections, served as the model for Dr. Jekyll.)
- Sir Victor Horsley (neurosurgery)
- Lars Leksell (neurosurgery, inventor of radiosurgery)
- Joseph Lister (discoverer of surgical sepsis, Listerine named in his honour)
- Harvey Cushing (pioneer of brain surgery)
- Nikolay Pirogov (the founder of field surgery)
- Lall Sawh (Trinidadian Urologist, pioneer of Kidney transplant surgery and early proponent of Viagra usage)
- Valery Shumakov (pioneer of artificial organs implantation)
- Svyatoslav Fyodorov (creator of radial keratotomy)
- Fyodor Uglov (listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest practicing surgeon)
- Gazi Yasargil (Turkish neurosurgeon, founder of microneurosurgery)
- Rene Favaloro (first surgeon to perform bypass surgery)
Surgery organizations and fellowships
References
- ^ Unless else specified in table, then ref is:'Integrated Care' Practices Adjust Pay, Seek New Markets as Budgets Shrink Physician Compensation Report, June, 2002]
- ^ [1] CEJKA Physician and Physician Executive Compensation Data
- ^ Ira D. Papel, John Frodel, Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
- ^ A. Martin-Araguz, C. Bustamante-Martinez, Ajo V. Fernandez-Armayor, J. M. Moreno-Martinez (2002)
External links
|
