Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

Fascinating stories from what we didn't know until we did know with still a lot to learn. Interesting read to shed light on the surgery subject and how we just are getting to know more about ourselves

Reviewer's background- I'm a a general surgery resident; I might be harsher than other reviewers, but I hope I can give a review helpful to everyone.This book is a nice appetizer for anyone interested in the history of surgery. It was written in conjunction with a BBC television series, and it reflects an episodic TV format (for better and for worse).The good- This is a fun, well written, and fast book to read. The author covers a large swath of surgery: cardiac, transplant, reconstructive and even neurosurgery. Every page has a notable scene / anecdote. Blood and Guts spans centuries, from Galen in Ancient Rome to modern hand transplant surgeons. Despite the pop aspects to Blood and Guts, this is also a smart read. The author trained for 5 years to be a physician, and I think this makes Blood and Guts more intelligent than most journalistic fluff. There aren't the grating errors that make medical professions cringe (unlike most news articles or pop TV). I think the final product belies the amount of research the author put into his work.What's 'lacking'- Because of the breadth tackled by this book, it doesn't flow seamlessly and lacks a unifying theme. This is fine if you're reading in short bursts (e.g. sitting on the can) but cumbersome if you're reading for long stretches. Also, because of the brevity and quick pace of the book, it doesn't really delve into what the patients or surgeons experienced while encountering such dramatic diseases. Children dying after cardiac surgery, RAF airmen disfigured from battle wounds, terrible surgeons, and great surgeons- it's like you're speed dating them. This book lacks a significant emotional impact for such a potentially powerful subject.Summary- This is good fast food. Not the stuff you get in the airport, but something tasty you would get every week or so when you could spare a few minutes. For someone interested but new to the medical field, a 5 star read. For medical professionals, 3 stars. For someone totally uninterested, it may provide you with some entertainment, but it won't linger like the best books.

I purchased this book for my wife and me (we are both medical students who are planning on entering surgical residency next year), and we both enjoyed it immensely! Very well-written, and a pleasure to read.Speaking as a "lay-person" who would never want to be referred to as such - please do not be deterred by reviews that describe this as a superficial/lay-person's text - it is not a comprehensive account of the minutia of surgical history, nor is it a surgical reference book, and I am confident that Richard Hollingham never intended it to be either. It is, however, a well-composed, engaging narrative of several key moments in the history of surgical practice. This book was recommended to me by one of the core surgical faculty at my home institution - he wanted to spark my curiosity, and he succeeded. I will certainly continue to read other surgical history books - dryer, deeper, longer books - but I will never discount the value of this book. This is the book that made me excited to learn about the history of surgery, and I am grateful to the surgeon who recommended it to me!

I’ll keep this really really short. It’s worth a read. Even though I pad money for basically a library copy with barcodes and annotations, I would recommend.

If you have an interest in medical history, I highly recommend this book. As a lay-person who’s had numerous surgeries, I found this book very interesting. The book is brilliantly written in 324 pages, split up into categories of surgery per chapter. The information is basic, but informative, and entertaining.I also recommend this book if you’re into “ick” and gruesome details. I really enjoyed that part, mostly because it makes the history come alive. It gives you mental imagery that goes along with exactly how horrifying, gruesome, and gritty surgical medicine used to be.

The book is a companion to the BBC series of the same name.It is a series of historical vignettes strung together to keep, what may have been a dry and overwhelming topic, interesting and even fascinating to some. The author deftly skims over many subjects, lingering long enough to satisfy the reader's curiosity about key events and main protagonists. The series of anecdotes keep the reader interested and wanting to know more. Is that not the sign of a good book?I recommend this book as a historical perspective (on surgery) to the lay public, and as a fun light read to the medical professional.

Fairly well written, with interesting historical examples. Well researched. The footnotes following the chapter are hard to access due to continuous scroll function. Recommended.

I started watching The Knick on HBO and looked for books to scratch the history of medicine itch. Started with the Butchering Art (recommended) and then decided on Blood and Guts to follow. This book is well written and covers a wide range of the history of surgery without running too long.

Ottimo

What a beautiful cable. It is good to power things that use this mini usb at scable distance. I bought mine for a snes classic, so now it runs power from the TV. It really is scablething when you can run a small device at around 10 feet or so without an outlet. Amazing in my opinion, simply breath-taking. Really though, it's just a cable. Or is it a life-changing piece of technology that improves life by a tremendous magnitude? My recommendation is that you find out for yourself; don't take my word for it.

The reader is taken on a journey through the history of surgery and the author’s use of Case Studies and biographies of those surgeons who dared to take risks and changed the views of their peers. It is a easy, often amusing book that explains each advance in surgical technology and the benefits gained.

Fascinating book

A superb book by nothing pretentious that hasn't illustrations nor squares to remark the "main" contents. It's only plain text, but excellent and I think there are no much books about history of surgery.The title is very opportune, as perhaps few people know a surgeon needs to be a trained professional, but also a daring one. If not, and if he's a timid or coward person, it's not uncommon in real surgery a bad physician to abandon an unfinished intervention, retire from the operating room or suffer an anxiety crisis and the work then must be finished by another surgeon. A real bad thing.For me the more interesting is the biography of Harvey Cushing, pioneer in neurosurgery. It's not uncommon such dedicate medical men to seem hard and insensible to others, as his work is practically the whole life for this class of persons. Worth from beginning to end and without the usual stupidities of today telefilms and fashion Hollywood surgeons and physicians. Perhaps it lacks that lobotomies were conceived effectively by Portuguese Dr. Egas Moniz, but mostly performed in practice by his colleague Almeida Lima.