Time line

Egypt - 3000 BC

Book of Thoth

Egypt - 3500 BC

Edwin Smyth papyrus (the first textbook of orthopedics and neurosurgery)

Babylon - 2250 BC

Treatment of haemorrhoids

1700 BC

Hammurabi of Babylon describes inguinal hernia

Egypt - 1552 BC

Ebers papyrus (The oldest preserved medical document ? a copy of the book of Thoth)

Egypt - 1500 BC

Mummified priestess with gallstones (this mummy was lost in WW2 due to bombing of the British Museum

400 BC

Hippocrates (460-337 BC) writes on haemorrhoids, ulcers, fistulae, oath etc

25 AD

Celsus, the greek describes trans-illumination to distinguish hydrocoele and hernia. Advocates removal of sack and testes

125

Heliodorus, recommends twisting off the neck of the hernia sack and preservation of the testes

160 AD

Galen (a.d. 131-201) regarded bleeding for haemorrhoids as therapeutic "blood letting"

200

Galen, came up with the concept of `rupture' of the peritoneum as a cause of hernia. He came to this conclusion by the process of thought and without any dissection.

476

Fall of Rome with interdiction of surgery by the Christian and Muslim churches.

550

Alexander of Tralles (525-605), of Byzantium describes calculi in human livers

1330

John of Arderne (a.d. 1306-1390) used the term "piles" in his writing

1412

Gerald of Metz; Fil d'or, gold wire inserted around the neck of the hernia to prevent recurrence

1543

Andreas Vesalius publishes De Huamni Corporis Fabrica

1556

Franco of Berne; Divide neck of hernia in strangulation

1700

Guild system and the Barber surgeons

1700

Littre describes a Meckel's diverticulum in a hernial sack

1724

Heister describes resection of gangrenous intestine

1743

Jean Louis Petite, did the first cholecystostomy when he attempted to drain an abdominal wall abscess

1757

Sir Percival Pott describes the pathophysiology of strangulation

1785

Richter describes partial enterocoele

1798

Richter advocates tube cholecystostomy

1804

Sir Astley Cooper publishes his book on hernia `A treatise on Hernia'; he describes Cooper's ligament and the transversalis fascia

1814

Antonio Scarpa describes Scarpa's fascia

1816

Hesselbach describes Hesselbach's triangle

1846

Discovery of anaesthesia

1854

John Snow observes the association between use of the Broad Street pump and Cholera

1859

Thudicum, recommends cholecystostomy with sewing of the gallbladder to the abdominal wall

1865

Joesph Lister in Glasgow discovers anti-sepsis (carbolic soap)

1867

Open cholecystostomy to remove calculi by Bobbs

1869

Injection treatment of haemorrhoids was used by Morgan (Dublin).

1876

Thomas Annandale (1838-1907), succeeded Lister as professor of Surgery in Edinburgh. Pioneers the pre-peritoneal approach to groin hernia repair

1881-83

Jean Martin Charcot describes neuro-arthropathy in the knee and ankle

1882

Carl Langenbuch performs the first cholecystectomy at the Lazarus hospital, Berlin

1884

Edoardo Bassini develops the Bassini repair of inguinal herniae

1889

William Halstead (1852-1922) recommends the Halstead radical cure for hernia

x

Georg Lothiessen (1868-1935), in Vienna performs the Cooper ligament repair

1902

Alexis Carrel developed the technique of vascular anastomosis

1909

J. H. Nichol in Glasgow pioneers day case treatment of hernias

1923

Bakes performs choledochoscopy

1925

Emile Holman grafted a mother's skin onto a badly burnt baby

1928

Alexander Fleming, extracts Penicillin from Bread moulds

1932

Mirizzi introduces operative cholangiography

1937

Milligan describes the open (Milligan-Morgan) haemorrhoidectomy

1939-45

World war two. Improvements in care of severe injury and burns

1942

Willem Kolff invented a dialysis machine in Holland from sausage casing and tomato cans. All of his patients died.

``It was a good thing that the boss was away''

1951

David Hume, George Thorn and Gustav Dammin grafted kidneys from one subject to another using the thigh as the recipient site.

1952

Ferguson in the USA describes the closed haemorrhoidectomy

1953

Earl Shouldice, recommends the Shouldice repair

1954

Identical twin renal transplantation.

1962

Immuno suppression opens the door for renal transplantation between non identical twins.

1963

Barron (Detroit) describes rubber banding for haemorrhoids

1967

Claude Barnard performs cardiac transplantation in South Africa

1970

Lictenstein recommends the tension free repair with Mesh

1973

Report on results of 18,400 repairs using the Shouldice repair

1982

Ger performs laparoscopic closure of the deep ring

1990

Franklin demonstrates the TAPP procedure

1993

McKernan demonstrates the TEP repair

1997

E U Hernia Trialists Collaboration set up; funded by E U Biomed company

1998

Longo presents the stapling procedure for prolapse and haemorrhoids

1999

Randomised controlled trail of laparoscopic vs open repair for groin hernia