Friday, February 22, 2008

Sushruta..Father of surgery

Sushruta lived in sixth century BC was a famed surgeon of ancient India, and the author of the book Sushruta Samhita. In his book, he explained over 120 surgical instruments, 300 surgical strategies and classifies human surgery in eight categories. He lived , taught and practiced his art on the banks of the Ganga in the area that corresponds to the present day city of Varanasi in North India.

Due to his seminal and countless works to the science and art of surgery he is also called 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 entirely known as the Susrutha Samhita. The "Samhita" has some writings that date as late as the first century, and some scholars believe that there were contributions and additions to his teachings from generations of his disciples and students. Sushruta is also the father of Plastic Surgery and Cosmetic Surgery since his method of forehead flap rhinoplasty (repairing the disfigured nose with a flap of skin from the forehead),that he used to reconstruct noses that were amputated, is practiced almost unchanged in technique to this day. The Susrutha Samhita contains the first known description of several operations, including the uniting of bowel, the removal of the prostate gland, the removal of cataract lenses and the draining of abscesses. Susrutha was also the first surgeon to guide the practice of operations on inanimate objects such as watermelons, clay plots and reeds; thus predating the modern practice of the surgical workshop by half a millennium.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow!! Can you also give some details in ORKUT??

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