Under the knife
Subtitle: a history of surgery in 28 remarkable operations
By: Arnold van de Laar
Publisher: John Murray; JOHN MURRAY
Published: 2018
Place of publication: London, England
Language: eng
Number of pages: 357
ISBN-13: 9781473633667; 9781473633650
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Surgery; History; Case studies; Medicine; General Surgery; History of Medicine
Description: The word 'surgeon' derives from the Greek for 'hand work', and since the dawn of time the surgeon has been charged with the task of patching people up when they need it. Arnold Van de Laar, himself a surgeon in Amsterdam, uses medical case histories to examine the past, present and future of surgery. The patients that feature in his include Empress Sissi (stabbed), Louis XIV (fistula in the anus), Pope John Paul II (colostomy), John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald (gunshot wounds), Lenin (cerebral infarction), Houdini (ruptured appendix), Albert Einstein (aneurysm) and Bob Marley (melanoma under the toenail). From the dark centuries of bloodletting and of amputations without anaesthetic to today's sterile, high-tech operating theatres, surgeon Arnold van de Laar takes us on a journey through the wayward history of surgery. Under the Knife a rich medical and cultural history, and a modern anatomy lesson for us all.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.