Surgery (from the Greek cheirourgia meaning "hand work") is the medical specialty that treats diseases or injuries by operative manual and instrumental treatment. Surgeons may be physicians, dentists, or veterinarians who specialize in surgery.
In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh, Pakistan, made the discovery that the people of Indus Valley Civilization, even from the early Harappan periods (c. 3300 BC), had knowledge of medicine and dentistry. The physical anthropologist that carried out the examinations, Professor Andrea Cucina from the University of Missouri-Columbia, made the discovery when he was cleaning the teeth from one of the men (see History of medicine). Later research in the same area found evidence of teeth having been drilled, dating back 9,000 years.
Researchers have uncovered an Ancient Egyptian mandible, dated to approximately 2750 BC, with two perforations just below the root of the first molar, indicating the draining of an abscessed tooth. Recent excavations of the construction workers of the Egyptian pyramids also led to the discovery of evidence of brain surgery on a labourer, who continued living for two years afterwards.
Indian physician Sushruta (c. 600 BC) is an important figure in the history of surgery. He lived, taught and practiced his art of surgery on the banks of the Ganges in the area that corresponds to the present day city of Benares in Northern India. Because of his seminal and numerous contributions to the science and art of surgery he is also known by the title "Father of Surgery". Much of what is known about this inventive surgeon is contained in a series of volumes he authored, which are collectively known as the Susrutha Samhita. It is the oldest known surgical text and it describes in exquisite detail the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of numerous ailments, as well as procedures on performing plastic surgery.
Surgeons are now considered to be specialised physicians, the profession of surgeon and that of physician have different historical roots and surgeons have now even subspecialised as have physicians. For example, Greek tradition was against opening the body and the Hippocratic Oath warns physicians against the practice of surgery, specifically that cutting persons laboring under the stone, i.e. lithotomy, an operation to relieve kidney stones, was to be left to such persons as practice . Of course, most knowledge of surgery comes from dissecting bodies, a science which was repulsive to many healers.
By the thirteenth century, many European towns were demanding that physicians have several years of study or training before they could practice. Montpellier, Padua and Bologna Universities were particularly interested in the academic side to Surgery, and by the fifteenth century at the latest, Surgery was a separate university subject to Physic. Surgery had a lower status than pure medicine, beginning as a craft tradition until Rogerius Salernitanus composed his Chirurgia, which laid the foundation for the species of the occidental surgical manuals, influencing them up to modern times.
Among the first modern surgeons were battlefield doctors in the Napoleonic Wars who were primarily concerned with amputation. Naval surgeons were often barber-surgeons, who combined surgery with their main jobs as barbers.
In London, an operating theatre or operating room from the day before modern anaesthesia or antiseptic surgery still exists, and is open to the public. It is found in the roof space of St Thomas Church, Southwark, London and is called the Old Operating Theatre.
Surgery recently came under the domain of unmanned robots .