Abstract
Mastering the art of surgery required centuries of endless improvement. All the progress of surgery focused on the progressive ability to control three key pillars: physiology, technique, and time. This process took place in more than three millennia, starting from the religious roots of healers, through the pioneering studies of the great anatomists of Humanism, with an exceptional outbreak of possibilities and discoveries from the XIX century to our time. The role of emergency general surgery (EGS) in this evolution is capital. Most of the advances in the field are directly related to the response of medicine to war and emergency. At present, EGS is the most practiced surgical discipline around the globe. However, despite being part of the very core of medical science, it has almost lost its identity during the era of hyper-specialization. Health systems around the world must recognize the central role of emergency surgery and give it the necessary resources to be implemented at best.
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Chiarugi, M. (2023). History of Emergency General Surgery. In: Coccolini, F., Catena, F. (eds) Textbook of Emergency General Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22599-4_1
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