page_title: Surgery
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Surgery / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Edwin Smith papyrus, the world's oldest surviving surgical document. Written in hieratic script in ancient Egypt around 1600 B.C., the text describes anatomical observations and the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of 48 types of medical problems in exquisite detail. Among the treatments described are closing wounds with sutures, preventing and curing infection with honey and moldy bread, stopping bleeding with raw meat, and immobilization of head and spinal cord injuries. Translated in 1930, the document reveals the sophistication and practicality of ancient Egyptian medicine. Plate 6 and 7 of the papyrus, pictured here, discuss facial trauma. Français&#160;: Le papyrus Edwin Smith est le plus ancien document original traitant de chirurgie. Écrit en caractères hiératiques pendant le Nouvel Empire de l’Égypte antique, vers le XVIIe siècle avant notre ère, ce traité décrit avec force détails les observations anatomiques et cliniques, les traumatismes et les traitements appliqués pour 48 affections médicales relevées sur un grand nombre de cas, ainsi que les pronostics associés à ces traitements. Il mentionne différents actes chirurgicaux, la fermeture avec les premières descriptions connues des sutures des plaies thoraciques. On y trouve aussi des traitements préventifs ou curatifs, des pharmacopées antibiotiques proposés pour lutter contre les infections avec le miel et le pain moisi, l’arrêt des hémorragies avec de la viande crue, et l’immobilisation des blessures à la tête et à la moëlle épinière. Traduit dans les années 30, le document révèle la sophistication et la praticité de la médecine de l’ancienne Égypte. Les planches 6 et 7 présentées ici discutent des traumatismes faciaux.
context_page_description: Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pathological condition such as a disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance or to repair unwanted ruptured areas.
  The act of performing surgery may be called a surgical procedure, operation, or simply "surgery". In this context, the verb "operate" means to perform surgery. The adjective surgical means pertaining to surgery; e.g. surgical instruments or surgical nurse. The person or subject on which the surgery is performed can be a person or an animal. A surgeon is a person who practices surgery and a surgeon's assistant is a person who practices surgical assistance. A surgical team is made up of surgeon, surgeon's assistant, anaesthetist, circulating nurse and surgical technologist. Surgery usually spans minutes to hours, but it is typically not an ongoing or periodic type of treatment. The term "surgery" can also refer to the place where surgery is performed, or, in British English, simply the office of a physician, dentist, or veterinarian.
caption: Plates vi & vii of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, an Egyptian surgical treatise
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