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Thread: A question or three about surgeons, procedures and surgeries

  1. #1
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    Default A question or three about surgeons, procedures and surgeries

    What is the difference between a "procedure" and a surgery?

    Who is considered to be the greatest surgeon in history?

    Who is considered the best surgeon working in the present day?

    What is considered the most complicated surgery?

    What is considered the most difficult surgery?

    What surgery has been performed the most in world history?

  2. #2
    my god, he's full of stars... OneCentStamp's avatar
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    Default Re: A question or three about surgeons, procedures and surgeries

    I work at a surgery center, and came to this thread all ready to answer whatever questions lay within, but all I can say is that you may not get a whole lot of answers unless you specify what kind of surgery you mean. These questions range from "overly general" to "downright vague."

    What is the difference between a "procedure" and a surgery?
    In my experience, nothing really. Differences in terminology.

    Who is considered to be the greatest surgeon in history?
    In what field?

    Who is considered the best surgeon working in the present day?
    Ditto. If you specified the "world's best heart surgeon" or "world's best plastic surgeon" (and even those should probably be narrowed), there could at least be a discussion. As it is, you're talking apples and oranges, if not apples and chihuahuas.

    What is considered the most complicated surgery?
    My gut reaction would be to say brain surgery, just because the brain is our most complicated and least well understood organ, but I freely confess I am not an expert on surgery in general.

    What is considered the most difficult surgery?
    See above.

    What surgery has been performed the most in world history?
    Either tooth extraction or circumcision, probably those two in that order.
    "You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."

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  3. #3
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: A question or three about surgeons, procedures and surgeries

    There's only one question on this list I could even take a stab (hah!) at, and that's the difference between a "surgery" and a "procedure". IME, if there is something to be done that requires an operating room, anesthesia (either local or general, or perhaps conscious sedation) but no actual cutting, it would be a 'procedure'. For instance, I've had probably two dozen cystoscopies for kidney stone removal. This is where I'm knocked out cold, and a 'scope with a "basket" on the end is threaded through the urethra to where the stone is, then they kind of catch the stone in the basket and pull it out. This would be a procedure.

    I've also had three C-sections and a host of other stuff that called for me being sliced open. These are surgeries.

    As OneCentStamp said, nothing else you've asked seems specific enough to garner answers.
    Everything will be OK in the end. If it's not OK, it's not the end.

  4. #4
    Oliphaunt Rube E. Tewesday's avatar
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    Default Re: A question or three about surgeons, procedures and surgeries

    Well, for greatest surgeon in history, a case could be made for Joseph Lister. His introduction of sepsis-fighting techniques in the operating theatre revolutionized medicine.

  5. #5
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: A question or three about surgeons, procedures and surgeries

    Quote Originally posted by Rube E. Tewesday
    Well, for greatest surgeon in history, a case could be made for Joseph Lister. His introduction of sepsis-fighting techniques in the operating theatre revolutionized medicine.
    *lightbulb goes on*

    Most people might be familiar with his germ-killing mouthwash.
    The poster formerly known as Jenaroph

  6. #6
    Oliphaunt featherlou's avatar
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    Default Re: A question or three about surgeons, procedures and surgeries

    Speaking of Lister and septis, I have read that surgeons only used to wash their hands *after* surgery, just to get the blood and guck off. Different times, man.

  7. #7
    Elephant
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    Default Re: A question or three about surgeons, procedures and surgeries

    Quote Originally posted by OneCentStamp
    <snip>

    What surgery has been performed the most in world history?
    Either tooth extraction or circumcision, probably those two in that order.
    In that order? I was born with the foreskin, but the teeth didn't come along until later, and my first extraction was wisdom teeth, at ~ age 30.
    Opportunity is missed by most people, because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison

  8. #8
    my god, he's full of stars... OneCentStamp's avatar
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    Default Re: A question or three about surgeons, procedures and surgeries

    Quote Originally posted by danceswithcats
    Quote Originally posted by OneCentStamp
    <snip>

    What surgery has been performed the most in world history?
    Either tooth extraction or circumcision, probably those two in that order.
    In that order? I was born with the foreskin, but the teeth didn't come along until later, and my first extraction was wisdom teeth, at ~ age 30.
    Sorry, I meant in order of which was probably the most common, not in chronological order they would be performed on you.
    "You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."

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  9. #9
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: A question or three about surgeons, procedures and surgeries

    I'm sure that candidates for "most difficult or complicated surgery" would be the kind that needs several teams of surgeons of different specialties, like those marathon Siamese twin separation surgeries. There's also difficult and rare transplants like faces and hands that are just now beginning to be done.
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