Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether that of a human or other animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage. Surgeons may be physicians, dentists, podiatrists or veterinarians.

In the U.S., surgeons train for longer than other specialists; only after 9 years of training do they qualify. These years include 4 years of medical school and a minimum of 5 years of residency.

History
In early recorded history, surgery was mostly associated with barber surgeons who were both haircutting barbers who also used their cutting tools to undertake surgical procedures, often at the battlefield and also for their royal paymasters. With advances in medicine and physiology, the professions of barbers and surgeons diverged from each other and by the 19th century barber surgeons had virtually disappeared. Military surgeons continued, although the title Surgeon General also came to refer to government public health officers.

In 1950, the Royal College of Surgeons of England (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 but also 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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms. 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 sub-specialty training. The distinction of Mr (etc.) is also used by surgeons in the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and some other Commonwealth countries.

Specialties and allied fields



 * Cardiac surgery (in the USA considered part of cardiothoracic surgery)
 * Colon and rectal surgery
 * Dental surgery
 * Oral and maxillofacial surgery
 * Transplant surgery
 * Upper gastrointestinal surgery
 * Vascular surgery
 * Maxillofacial surgery
 * Neurological surgery
 * Obstetrics and gynaecology
 * Orthopaedic surgery
 * Ophthalmology
 * Otolaryngology
 * Pediatric surgery
 * Plastic surgery
 * Podiatric surgery
 * Surgical oncology
 * Trauma surgery
 * Thoracic surgery (in the USA considered part of cardiothoracic surgery)
 * Urology
 * Veterinary surgery

There are only about 1200 transplant surgeons.

Some physicians 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.

Pioneer surgeons

 * Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (considered the father of modern surgery, )
 * Sushruta (the first to document an operation of open rhinoplasty )
 * 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
 * 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, and often considered the father of, modern neurosurgery)
 * Gholam A. Peyman (Inventor of LASIK, )
 * 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)
 * Gazi Yasargil (Turkish neurosurgeon, founder of microneurosurgery)
 * Rene Favaloro (first surgeon to perform bypass surgery)
 * Michael R. Harrison (pioneer of fetal surgery)
 * Michael DeBakey (educator and innovator in the field of cardiac surgery)
 * Fidel Pagés (pioneer of epidural anesthesia)

Organizations and fellowships

 * ACFAS
 * FACS
 * FRACDS
 * FRACS
 * FRCS
 * FRCS (Canada)
 * FRCS (Edinburgh)
 * FRCSI (Ireland)
 * MRCS

Origin
The contents of this page were copied from the Wikipedia article Surgeon on 8 January 2013.