Surgery isn't a modern invention. It's an ancient practice dating back thousands of years. In what is now Ensisheim, France, Neolithic people performed complex cranial surgery between 5100 and 4900 BCE. Archaeologists discovered the skull of a 50-year-old man with two large holes cut into it using flint tools. The openings showed signs of surgical success. While the larger hole, nearly 9.4 centimeters wide, only partially closed, a smaller one on the same skull healed completely. This means the man survived the invasive procedure, known as trepanation, and lived for years afterward. Early surgeons used simple stone blades to scrape away bone, possibly to relieve pressure from fractures. Their work raises a critical question: if we could operate on the brain seven thousand years ago, what barriers remained before surgery could become truly safe?
The History of Surgery
How surgery went from Stone Age skull drilling to organ transplants: anatomy, anaesthesia, antiseptics, blood groups and the first kidney transplant.
The First Cut
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the first surgery performed?
Archaeological evidence shows successful cranial surgery, or trepanation, was performed as early as 5100 BCE in what is now France. A man's skull from this era shows two large holes that fully healed, proving he survived the procedure.
Who invented anesthesia for surgery?
On October 16, 1846, a dentist named William T.G. Morton gave the first successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia. He administered it to a patient who then had a neck tumor removed without pain at Massachusetts General Hospital.
When was the first successful organ transplant?
The first successful long-term organ transplant was a kidney transplant between identical twins, Richard and Ronald Herrick, on December 23, 1954. Dr. Joseph Murray performed the surgery, and the recipient lived for eight more years.
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