Anatomy to a surgeon is like a Google map to you.
Anatomy is knowing what’s inside our body, where, what are different parts made of etc.
In a keyhole surgery, anatomy is further magnified on a TV screen, helping surgeons to explore diseased organs like never before.
Life wasn’t this advanced to the early explorers of human anatomy.
In medieval times, the Church had strictly forbidden human dissection.
Their notions of human anatomy were largely based on animal dissections- mainly apes- done by an ancient Greek physician called Galen who had been dead for 1300 years.
Galen’s teachings were treated as absolute truth and students of medicine were forbidden from questioning them.
But that did not quell burning desire of a few pioneers to learn.
They stole human remains from grave yards. Brought home bodies of men executed in city squares. Studied them, in the cover of darkness of their own homes.
Only because they wanted to examine and discover what lay within.
Andreus Vesalius, now regarded as the Father of Modern Anatomy, was one among them.
Raiding the gallows of Paris, Vesalius famously stole half decomposed body of an executed criminal for dissection. It was too good an opportunity to miss.
Daring endeavors as this and extraordinary study of medicine by Vesalius gave birth to his remarkable 1543 book De Humini Corporus Fabrica which was a fully illustrated anatomy of the human body.
This book overthrew misconceptions in anatomy that had persisted for over a thousand years.
We as contemporary surgeons are ever grateful to such explorers who risked their own lives and reputations to transform patient care by enhancing medical science.
Without the risks they took and the dangerous path they charted, medical science could have progressed little beyond its primitive form.
We are planning a few more blogs in the coming weeks, covering interesting tit-bits about surgery and keyhole surgery. Hope you will find them relevant and interesting.
Your feedback most welcome.
Take Care
