The evolution of surgery over the last 100 years is horrifying and astounding

1906 surgery
Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr

When you think about it, surgery is downright bizarre — humans cut into one another all the time to get rid of deadly diseases and excess body fat.

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But the fact we don't marvel about this on a daily basis shows how advanced surgery has become. Over the last 100 years or so, surgery has become a safe and reliable tool, not to mention a necessary component of public health.

Here's a taste of what that journey looked like.

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As early as 1906, doctors were performing fairly complex operations on patients. Rudimentary x-rays allowed unprecedented views inside the body, though no precautions were taken to avoid harmful exposure.

1906 surgery
Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr

Other procedures around the time were less scientifically sound, such as the practice of regulating blood pressure with full-body suits as doctors administered infusions of medicine into the neck.

1906 surgery
Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr
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That's not to say the rooms for these grisly operations weren't impressive. Take the Ellis Island Hospital's operating room, which, even in 1909, looked fairly modern.

1907 hospital room
Library of Congress

The surgeries themselves, however, were often brutal. With a poor understanding of anesthesia and none of the delicate tools available today, operations were forceful and traumatic.

1915 surgery
Wikimedia Commons
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During World War I, medical science saw tremendous innovation. Surgery became mobile as doctors in the field needed to operate on wounded soldiers.

mobile x ray truck world war 1
Reuters

By 1921, anesthesia was used during procedures like the tumor-removal surgery depicted below. But records indicate that roughly one in 10 patients died on the table.

1921 surgery
Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr
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During the 20s, the equipment wasn't advanced enough for the intricate surgeries being performed. Physicians sometimes relied on rickety carts made of PVC pipes to support their operating tables.

surgery 1922
Wikimedia Commons

The 1920s saw an advent of surgery clinics. Whereas doctors initially operated with just one or two nurses to assist them, now physicians worked in teams.

surgery 1922
Wikimedia Commons
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The most iconic images from this time period depict sample procedures performed in lecture halls, before an audience of rising doctors.

1922 oral surgery clinic
Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr

But medical innovation still had its pitfalls: This Braun inhaler was used to administer ether and chloroform. However, though chloroform was praised for its quick-acting effects, it was phased out in the 1930s because of its toxicity.

ether and chloroform inhaler
Wikimedia Commons
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X-ray tubes were also common in the 1930s. Doctors enjoyed the ability to peer into people's bodies before needing to resort to surgery.

X-ray tube 1930s
Wikimedia Commons

In the early 1940s, medical scientists learned to use localized x-rays and anesthesia on specific parts of the body. As a result, patients were treated to oral surgeries to relieve their stubborn tooth aches and pains.

Dental surgery 1940s 1950s
Wikimedia Commons
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The decade also brought new interest in extreme procedures, namely, lobotomies. Doctors started specializing in the practice of alleviating ailments by removing certain brain tissues altogether.

lobotomy 1941 newspaper
Wikimedia Commons

The tools that allowed for these surgeries were often just as macabre as the procedures they enabled. Consider the sturdy metal drill doctors used to bore two holes in a patient's skull before tissue removal.

lobotomy drill norway
Wikimedia Commons
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As World War II broke out, surgery again saw great advancement. Doctors could essentially perform the same procedures in the field as they would at a hospital, all thanks to technology that didn't require them to stay rooted in an operating room.

underground surgery
Wikimedia Commons

In 1952, doctors performed the first surgery in which they successfully stopped and restarted the heart. It would later form the foundation for modern-day transplants.

open heart surgery 1955
Wikimedia Commons
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Within a decade, at the height of the Vietnam War, doctors performed the first heart transplant. Unfortunately, healing was still an obstacle. The patient died from pneumonia just 18 days later.

south china sea nurse 1967
Wikimedia Commons

The decade brought loads of technology into the operating room, with doctors manning control stations that looked fit for NASA. Operating rooms became the focal point of any successful hospital.

operating room 1960s
Wikimedia Commons
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Operations that once posed risks of infection, such as wound repair, were routine by the 1970s. But now doctors wanted to go smaller: The decade saw the invention of laparoscopic, or minimally-invasive, surgery.

1974 surgery
Wikimedia Commons

With minimally-invasive techniques on the rise, surgery entered the mainstream. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a booming interest in plastic surgery, as people realized operations could be a form of recreation, not just life-preservation.

Surgical breast biopsy
Wikimedia Commons
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Silicone implants, devised in the early 1980s, especially helped popularize breast augmentation surgery.

Breast surgery reconstruction
Wikimedia Commons

As with all innovation, some experimental procedures did not follow the newest techniques. In 1994, for instance, doctors at Russia's Hemopathologic Institute poured ice on patients to prepare for heart surgery in place of anesthesia.

1994 surgery ice open-heart
Reuters
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But the progress also transcended human surgeries. In 1996, Bonah, an 18-month-old rare white tiger, underwent an operation to correct a dislocated kneecap. Bonah recovered with flying colors.

1996 tiger surgery
Megan Lewis/Reuters

As America's obesity epidemic began spiraling out of control, the early 21st century saw unprecedented use of laparoscopic surgery to shrink patients' stomachs to fight weight gain.

Laparoscopic stomach surgery
Wikimedia Commons
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Within the last few years, the most cutting edge technologies have started relying less on human involvement and more on robotics. The da Vinci Xi Surgical System, made by Intuitive Surgical, could allow physicians to work remotely on patients from around the world.

RTR4GM77
Mike Blake/Reuters

Just recently, in December of 2015, physicians at NYU Langone Medical Center performed the world's first successful face transplant on a firefighter who suffered extreme burns in 2001. More than 100 people worked for 26 hours — a true medical miracle.

face transplant
A side-by-side comparison of Hardison's face before and after the transplant. Reuters
Innovation Medicine History
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