Surgery
Operations
that people once regarded as impossible became routine
in the 20th century. Many of these surgical advances
resulted from improved drugs or medical technology.
Better drugs to prevent rejection of transplanted organs
made transplantation of hearts, kidneys, livers, lungs,
and other organs removed from donors possible. Patients
were kept alive with artificial kidneys and temporary
artificial hearts while awaiting a transplant. The heart-lung
machine made it possible to stop and restart the heart
during coronary bypass surgery. Small fiber-optic instruments
called endoscopes led to the new field of minimally
invasive surgery. These new tools made it possible to
remove a diseased gallbladder or appendix, for example,
through small slits rather than large incisions, greatly
reducing the amount of anesthesia required during the
surgery and lessening recovery time. Transfusions of
blood, plasma, and other saline solutions, which went
into use in the 1930s, helped prevent deaths from shock
in surgery patients. In the 1990s, physicians even began
performing surgery to repair defects in unborn infants.
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