title: History of hepatic surgery.
abstract: This article describes the development of hepatic surgery from old anecdotes to spectacular progress achieved during the last 25 years. The door to this evolution was opened by anatomists who paved the way for a few courageous hepatic surgeons, who performed pioneering work between 1960 to 1980. Then, hepatic surgery and transplantation became widely accepted for the treatment of many diseases. Surgery on the liver has become safer with low postoperative mortality as a result of the creation of centers of excellence offering multidisciplinary expertise and technical innovation.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Hepato-Pancreatico-Biliary & Transplantation Center, Department of Surgery, University Hospital of Zürich, Rämistrasse 100, Zürich 8091, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Kuno
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lehmann
authors.forename: Pierre-Alain
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Clavien
mesh_terms: D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000266:history*; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000266:history* / Q000601:surgery; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000266:history*