Surgery (via Latin chirurgia “working with the hand, manual labor”) is the branch of medicine that deals with the surgical treatment of diseases and injuries. Modern surgery developed at the end of the 19th century, after the foundations of today’s asepsis and antisepsis to prevent wound infections and blood poisoning, as well as those of anesthesia, and a deeper understanding of physiology and pathophysiology unfolded. Visceral surgery (from Latin viscera = “viscera”) is the “surgery of the abdominal cavity and abdominal wall, endocrine glands and soft tissues, including transplantation”. As abdominal surgery, it comprises the surgical treatment of the abdominal organs, i.e. the entire digestive tract including the esophagus, stomach, small and large intestine, rectum, liver, gall bladder, pancreas and spleen. Furthermore, the surgical treatment of the thyroid and parathyroid glands as well as the treatment of hernias and the transplantation of abdominal organs such as liver, kidney, pancreas and small intestine belong to visceral surgery. Visceral surgical conditions include acute injuries, tumors, inflammation, and malformations of the above organs.
