From the Archives 
Surgical societies seek control of the “laparoscopic revolution”(0)
The October 1989 American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress should be recognized as an important moment in the history of modern surgery. It was at this meeting that much of the enthusiasm for laparoscopic cholecystectomy was generated, triggering what is sometimes referred to as the “laparoscopic revolution” in general surgery. First performed in 1987 […]
No scalpel required: When orthopaedic surgery was conservative
In his 1914 presidential address to the American Orthopaedic Association, Gwilym G. Davis, MD, described the field as follows: “Radical procedures characterize general surgery, whereas conservation is the watchword of the orthopedic surgeon.”1 Conservative surgery was an ideology many elite surgeons applied at the time to separate themselves from their barber-surgeon past—to distance themselves from […]
Janet Maria Vaughan—An unlikely hero
In the crucible of war, heroes are forged. We remember the political leaders who made critical decisions or the soldiers who put their lives on the line. Other heroes emerge without titles or uniforms. One example is Janet Maria Vaughan, MD (1899–1993). She started life unlikely to become a physician and even less likely to […]
German influences on U.S. surgery and the founding of the ACS
Describes how German surgeons influenced the founding of the College and how the German education model helped shape U.S. residency education.
Caring for the Hiroshima Maidens
Describes the work and enduring legacy of the U.S. surgeons who treated the “Hiroshima Maidens”—Japanese women who were disfigured as a result of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.
More in this category
- Jennie Smillie Robertson, MD: One of Canada’s first women surgeons
- Matilda Arabella Evans, MD: Resolute, resilient, resourceful
- The first women elected to College Fellowship
- Dr. Mary Edwards Walker: War surgeon, suffragette, and pioneer in women’s rights
- John Gabbert Bowman, first Executive Director of the ACS
- The book that established plastic surgery in the U.S.
- J.M.T. Finney, MD, FACS, and AEF Base Hospital No. 18 in WWI
- The U.S. medical response to gas warfare in World War I
- The College, surgeons, and the Great War
- The rescue of Miss Inez Stone
- The Great War and the evolution of plastic and reconstructive surgery
- Guy de Chauliac and “What the Surgeon Ought to Be”
- The assassination of President James Garfield: Could he have survived?
- President Eisenhower and his bowel obstruction
- The covert operations performed on President Grover Cleveland
