Hystery (haha) of Hysterectomies

The first recorded vaginal hysterectomy was in the 2nd Century AD, performed by Soranus of Epheus for a prolapsed uterus.  During the 18th Century, there was a 90% mortality rate for women who underwent hysterectomies.   And in 1843, Dr. Clay performed the first successful subtotal hysterectomy in Manchester, England, although the poor women died several days after her surgery. In 1847, chloroform was introduced as an anesthesia during surgeries, but due to it’s toxicity, surgeries had to be performed within one hour.  In 1853, Dr. Burnham of Massachusetts, performed the first successful abdominal subtotal hysterectomy with a surviving patient.  Interestingly enough, it was somewhat accidental: while excising an ovarian cyst, his patient vomited (there was no anesthesia) and the force of her vomiting pushed the uterus out of the abdominal incision. Unable to return the uterus to the cavity, Dr. Burnham was forced to remove it.  During his next 15 hysterectomies, he only lost 3 patients.  In 1878, German doctor, Freund, introduced the first reproducible “simple” hysterectomy; and in 1898, Austrian doctor, Schauta and his student Wertheim, performed the first successful radical hysterectomy for uterine cancer. In 1929, Dr. Richardson of the United States performed the first total abdominal hysterectomy.  France introduced the gynecological laparoscopic surgery in the1940s; however, the first laparoscopic hysterectomy was not performed until 1988 by Dr. Reich.  The DaVinci robotic laparascopic system was approved by the FDA in 2000 and the first robotic laparoscopic hysterectomy was performed in 2005.