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The first ever skulls were found in France which showed signs of a rudimentary surgery called trepanation. This method involved drilling a hole in the skull.
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English surgeons and barbers united to form The United Barber-Surgeons Company. Together these barber-surgeons performed tooth extractions and bloodletting (withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease).
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A British obstetrician by the name James Blundell successfully transfused human blood to a patient who had hemorrhaged (an escape of blood from a ruptured blood vessel) during childbirth.
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Charles Clay, an English surgeon, also known as the "Father of Ovariotomy" performed the first ever hysterectomy in Manchester, England.
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Ether was used as the first anesthetic publicly during a surgery. The patient was conscious but didn't experience any pain during the procedure to remove a tumor in his neck.
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British surgeon Joseph Lister published a book called "Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery", this book outlined all the measures of cleanliness to be taken for a surgical procedure. Because of this, the mortality rate for surgical patients immediately fell.
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First successful appendectomy was performed by Dr. William West Grant, in Iowa.
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First successful heart surgery was performed at the Provident Hospital in Chicago. Even though the surgery repaired the pericardium (the sac around the heart), many did not consider this to be the first successful "heart surgery" because the heart itself as an organ was not operated on.
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The first ever X-ray was performed by a physicist named Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen at the University of Würzburg in Germany.
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Surgeons in Germany repaired a stab wound in the muscle of the right ventricle.
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First successful cornea transplant surgery was performed by an Austrian ophthalmologist Eduard Zirm, who transplanted the cornea's in both eyes of a man who had previously been blinded.
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First documented plastic surgery was performed on a burned English sailor.
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Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, an antibiotic due to which a significant decrease in the rate of mortality due to infections was seen.
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First sex-change operation (male to female) took place in Germany.
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The first metal hip replacement surgery was performed by an American Surgeon, Dr. Austin T. Moore at Columbia Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina.
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First successful organ transplant took place. The kidney recipient rejected the organ after eight months.
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First ever successful heart surgery was performed where the heart was stopped and restarted.
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The first successful pancreas transplant ever was performed at the University of Minnesota. R. Lillehei and W. Kelly transplanted a kidney and a pancreas in a diabetic patient on dialysis, getting function of both organs.
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First ever successful liver transplant.
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First "test-tube" baby was born using in vitro fertilization technique.
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First robotic surgery was documented.
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First successful hand transplant (previous patients had rejected their grafts).
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Da Vinci robotic surgical system won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. This system is now used in a wide variety of procedures, including prostate surgeries and coronary artery bypass.
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First natural orifice transluminal (experimental surgical technique whereby "scarless" abdominal operations can be performed) endoscopic surgery performed. This technique uses a natural body opening, such as the mouth, to insert instruments and minimize recovery times.
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Connie Culp, a U.S resident was the first person to receive a near-total full face transplant in the United States. This procedure was performed at The Cleveland Clinic.
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World's first ever full-face transplant performed was in Spain.
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A nerve transfer procedure was done which gave a paraplegic (affected by or relating to paralysis of the legs and lower body) patient the ability to move their hands.
