Historians have examined the development of surgical techniques and of the surgical profession itself, but have paid scant attention to the tools that made surgery. Surgeon and historian Kirkup (honorary curator, Royal College of Surgeons, UK) demonstrates how surgical instruments as sophisticated as ultrasound or lasers began as teeth, mouth, fists, fingernails, and fingers. Far from being a compendium drawn from instrument catalogs, this volume is a masterpiece of scholarship. The instruments are situated in the surgical theory and practice of their times. Kirkup's skill and devotion in his presentation and description raise the work from a register to a natural history of the instruments. (The only caveat is that some pictures are not for the squeamish.) An extensive bibliography and an excellent index add to the book's value.

2010 Reprint of the 1942 edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Hardbound. Cloth, Oversized Octavo. 114 Pages with index. This important little book contains an account of the evolution of surgical instruments as illustrated by examples formerly in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. With Dr. Thompson as curator, this collection had grown to number about three thousand examples when early in 1941 a Nazi air raid destroyed a major portion of it. Dr. Thompson, from his intimate knowledge of the contents of the collection, has compiled this record. He traces the scapel from 330 B.C. up to the present time. The amputation knife from Susruta to Liston; and the story of the saw in 2700 B.C. The period from Trepan to Trephine covers almost two thousand years. Originally published in 1941, this book has become hard to find. Specialists currently ask circa $250 for the title. Special effort has been made to reproduce the illustrations contained in the original edition.

This is a very scholarly work that the author prefaces by explaining the Latin and Greek writings which are sources of his information. He tells us that both cultures had many, many kinds of different surgical instruments many of them made of iron and bronze. They also had instruments made of steel, since in those ancient days pure iron ore and good quality charcoal were abundant, thus allowing the making of steel.

About the Book: This book has therefore subdivided the realm of medical instruments into the same sections like a text on physiology and introduces the basic early day methods well, before dealing with the details of present day instruments currently in

Handbook of Robotic and Image-Guided Surgery provides state-of-the-art systems and methods for robotic and computer-assisted surgeries. In this masterpiece, contributions of 169 researchers from 19 countries have been gathered to provide 38 chapters. This handbook is 744 pages, includes 659 figures and 61 videos. It also provides basic medical knowledge for engineers and basic engineering principles for surgeons. A key strength of this text is the fusion of engineering, radiology, and surgical principles into one book. - A thorough and in-depth handbook on surgical robotics and image-guided surgery which includes both fundamentals and advances in the field - A comprehensive reference on robot-assisted laparoscopic, orthopedic, and head-and-neck surgeries - Chapters are contributed by worldwide experts from both engineering and surgical backgrounds

This book opens with a unique historical review of natural amputations due to congenital absence, disease, frostbite, animal trauma, and to punishment and ritual. The advent of surgical amputation and its difficulties form a major part of the book, summarising the evolution of the control of haemorrhage and infection, pain relief, techniques, instrumentation, complications, prostheses, results and case histories. Alternative procedures, increasingly important in the last two centuries, are also debated.