Reference · 18 milestones

From Hippocrates to the robot

A timeline of the real surgical and medical history behind the show's satire, from ancient Greece to the robot in the operating room. Every entry links to the episode where it comes up.

Year	What happened	Hear it
c. 460 BC	Hippocrates of Kos is traditionally dated to this era; the ethical tradition of the Hippocratic Oath still bears his name.ancient	Out of Touch · 7:44
1806	Franz Kaspar Hesselbach describes the triangular gap in the abdominal wall through which a direct inguinal hernia emerges.hernia	Pax Inguinalis (Part 2) · 4:54
1826	Antoine Lembert describes the inverting suture technique still used to close the bowel.general surgery	Out of Touch · 3:03
1847	Ignaz Semmelweis links handwashing between the autopsy room and the delivery room to a sharp drop in deaths from childbed fever.hospital	Fourth and Gall (Play by Play Coverage) · 17:24
1867	John Stough Bobbs performs the first cholecystotomy, opening the gallbladder to remove a stone, in Indianapolis.biliary	Out of Touch · 1:00
1881	Theodor Billroth performs the first successful stomach removal for cancer; the reconstruction techniques that follow it are still called Billroth I and II.general surgery	Fourth and Gall (Play by Play Coverage) · 3:11
1886	Reginald Heber Fitz coins the term "appendicitis" and argues for its early surgical removal.general surgery	Out of Touch · 1:27
1887	Edoardo Bassini publishes his technique for repairing inguinal hernias, the standard repair for most of the next century.hernia	Pax Inguinalis: Negotiating a Just and Lasting Peace in the Inguinal Region (Part 1) · 1:53
1889	Charles McBurney describes the point of maximal tenderness in appendicitis that bears his name.general surgery	Out of Touch · 1:25
1892	F. G. Connell describes the all-layer inverting suture used to close the bowel.general surgery	Out of Touch · 3:03
1905	Sigmund Freud publishes Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, exploring why we laugh.mind	From Burnout to Punchlines: Freud's Solution · 1:04
1909	Emil Theodor Kocher wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the thyroid gland; his name now travels with the Kocher maneuver for mobilizing the duodenum.biliary	Fourth and Gall (Play by Play Coverage) · 13:39
1914	Robert Bárány wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for working out how the inner ear's balance system reacts to hot and cold water, the basis of the caloric reflex test.neurology	The Iceman Cometh and the Patient Goeth · 4:38
1948	Pablo Luis Mirizzi describes the syndrome, now named for him, in which a gallstone presses on the main bile duct.biliary	The Presidential Address of the International Brotherhood of Biliary Tract Workers · 5:18
1961	Thomas Fogarty invents the balloon-tipped catheter used to retrieve clots and stones from vessels and ducts.biliary	Fourth and Gall (Play by Play Coverage) · 14:03
1970s	Harry LaVeen develops the peritoneovenous shunt, draining fluid from the abdomen into a vein to treat severe ascites.general surgery	The Presidential Address of the International Brotherhood of Biliary Tract Workers · 10:58
1985	Erich Mühe performs the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy in Germany, removing a gallbladder through small incisions instead of one large one.laparoscopy	Standing on the Shoulders of Physicists in the Operating Room
2000	The da Vinci Surgical System receives FDA clearance, bringing robotic-assisted surgery into general use.robotics	Out of Touch · 7:07