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Surgery
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Operations that people once regarded as impossible became routine
in the 20th century. Many of these surgical advances resulted from
improved drugs or medical technology. Better drugs to prevent rejection
of transplanted organs made transplantation of hearts, kidneys,
livers, lungs, and other organs removed from donors possible. Patients
were kept alive with artificial kidneys and temporary artificial
hearts while awaiting a transplant. The heart-lung machine made
it possible to stop and restart the heart during coronary bypass
surgery. Small fiber-optic instruments called endoscopes led to
the new field of minimally invasive surgery. These new tools made
it possible to remove a diseased gallbladder or appendix, for example,
through small slits rather than large incisions, greatly reducing
the amount of anesthesia required during the surgery and lessening
recovery time. Transfusions of blood, plasma, and other saline solutions,
which went into use in the 1930s, helped prevent deaths from shock
in surgery patients. In the 1990s, physicians even began performing
surgery to repair defects in unborn infants.
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