Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

A superb book by nothing pretentious that hasn't illustrations nor squares to remark the "main" contents. It's only plain text, but excellent and I think there are no much books about history of surgery. The title is very opportune, as perhaps few people know a surgeon needs to be a trained professional, but also a daring one. If not, and if he's a timid or coward person, it's not uncommon in real surgery a bad physician to abandon an unfinished intervention, retire from the operating room or suffer an anxiety crisis and the work then must be finished by another surgeon. A real bad thing. For me the more interesting is the biography of Harvey Cushing, pioneer in neurosurgery. It's not uncommon such dedicate medical men to seem hard and insensible to others, as his work is practically the whole life for this class of persons. Worth from beginning to end and without the usual stupidities of today telefilms and fashion Hollywood surgeons and physicians. Perhaps it lacks that lobotomies were conceived effectively by Portuguese Dr. Egas Moniz, but mostly performed in practice by his colleague Almeida Lima.

外科の歴史についての本は Cambridge Illustrated History of Surgery などの立派なものがあるが、通して読むのはなかなか難しい。この本は“外科の始まり、心臓、移植、形成外科、脳外科”の5章からなり、特に時系列に従って書かれているわけではなく、様々なエピソードを中心に述べられている。イギリス流の辛辣なユーモアもあり読み物としても楽しい。戦争で外科手術の技術が発展するのがよくわかる。第2次大戦でノルマンジー上陸後に負傷した兵士の心臓から弾丸を取り出したハーケンの話で心臓手術、両大戦で顔面外傷や熱傷の治療で形成外科手術が進歩したのがわかる。移植の話も多いが、南アフリカのバーナードが最初の心臓移植を行った後の数年間は術後の平均生存日数は29日だったそうです。サイクロスポリンが使われるようになってから生存期間は劇的に改善した訳です。日本の和田心臓移植においても当然、術後の長期生存は期待できなかったことが想像できる。今だから言える話ですが。

Contents - excellent (11/10) Book manufacturing - Could be better in binding quality, font size, typeface choice

Ottimo

Un excursus molto particolare sulla storia della chirurgia. ll volume non segue un ordine cronologico, è stato diviso per temi e ha il pregio di essere interessante e poco dispersivo. Consigliato.