The 21st Century: Surgery Becomes Smaller

Throwback Theater The Stitch

By: Lindsey Joyce, MSN, RN, CNOR

Published: 9/12/2024

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Technology continues to make its way into ORs around the world. New innovations allow surgeries that once took hours and required long hospital stays to be done as outpatient procedures. These advances provide the opportunity to treat conditions that may not have been treatable before. Today, there are more than 2,500 various surgical techniques, and the focus has been on refining and perfecting these techniques to ensure better surgical outcomes.

  • 2000: First robotic-assisted surgery system is approved by the FDA for general surgery
  • 2007: First natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery; tools are inserted into natural orifices (eg, mouth, nose, anus) and surgery is performed without external incisions
  • 2008: First near total face transplantation performed at Cleveland Clinic
  • 2010: First full face transplantation performed in Spain
  • 2013: First successful nerve transfer performed in St. Louis, MO; this procedure allows patients with paraplegia to use their hands
  • 2014: First male genitalia transplantation performed at Tygerberg Hospital in South Africa
  • 2016: First uterus transplantation performed at Cleveland Clinic 

 

References:

  1. Clunie A. Surgery…a violent profession. Hartford Stage. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://www.hartfordstage.org/stagenotes/ether-dome/history-of-surgery
  2. Rutkow I. Empire of The Scalpel. New York, NY: Scribner; 2022.
  3. Schneider D. The Invention of Surgery. Holland, OH: Dreamscape Media, LLC; 2020.
  4. Gawande A. Two hundred years of surgery. New Engl J Med. 2012;366(18):1716-1723. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmra1202392

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