Surgery since 1945

Surgery had developed incredibly quickly since World War II. The main advances have been:

• Transplants - the first successful kidney transplant was in 1954 and the first heart transplant in the UK was in 1968; hip replacements have been common since the 1970s;
• Keyhole Surgery - enables much quicker recovery times as less damage is done to the body;
• Microsurgery - the ability to join tiny blood vessels and nerves enables amazing new procedures such as hand transplants and neural surgery.

The key factors that have enabled this have been technology, science and wealth.

Surgery had developed incredibly quickly since World War II. The main advances have been:

• Transplants - the first successful kidney transplant was in 1954 and the first heart transplant was performed in South Africa in 1967 by Christian Barnard and in the UK in 1968; the drug cyclosporine was developed in 1970 to stop the body rejecting new organs. Hip replacements have been common since the 1970s;
• Keyhole Surgery - enables much quicker recovery times as less damage is done to the body;
• Microsurgery - the ability to join tiny blood vessels and nerves enables amazing new procedures such as hand transplants and neural surgery.
• Prosthetics - e.g. bionic eyes.

The key factors that have enabled this have been technology, science and wealth.