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History of our Department

The history of surgery at The New York Hospital, second oldest hospital in the United States, reflects the evolution of surgery in America. The New York Hospital was the cradle of early surgical developments and instruction in America, earning a worldwide reputation. Many of today's practices and techniques arose from this institution.

The New York Hospital was born during the Revolutionary era from a speech made by Dr. Samuel Bard in 1769. Bard stressed the importance of clinical practice, teaching, and research, the triad of modern academic medicine. King George III chartered the hospital in 1771 and Samuel Bard became the first attending physician.

Thomas Jones, Richard Kissam, and Wright Post were the first to be appointed attending surgeons at The New York Hospital in 1797. Post was the first in America to successfully ligate the femoral artery for the treatment of a popliteal aneurysm in 1796. He was also the first to ligate the common carotid artery in continuity (1813) and the subclavian artery in its distal half for the treatment of a brachial artery aneurysm (1817). In the archives of The New York Hospital there is a "Register of Surgical Cases" dating back to 1808. The practices described typify the state of the art in surgical knowledge and treatment of surgical diseases in the early 19th century.

Both The New York Hospital and surgical practice in America rapidly changed in the late 19th century. A new hospital building was completed in 1877 when the first New York Hospital building became inadequate for the growing patient volume. The development of anesthesia and antisepsis allowed for dramatic changes in the practice of surgery. In November 1846, only one month after Morton's demonstration of ether anesthesia in Boston, Dr. John Rodgers utilized ether anesthesia during incision and drainage of a perirectal abscess at The New York Hospital. In 1878, Lewis Atterbury Stimson, the first Professor of Surgery at The New York Hospital, delivered the Listerian theories of antisepsis to America. He gave the first public demonstration of an antiseptic operation in the United States before 75 people where he performed a through-the-knee amputation for a tumor. Aside for his contributions on Listerism, Stimson also described the molded plaster splint for the setting of fractures and the use of a transverse suprapubic approach to the lower abdominal viscera before Pfannensteil. Stimson orchestrated the charter of a new medical school, the Cornell University Medical College, in 1898.

William Stuart Halsted, regarded by most as the founder of modern surgery and surgical training, began his own medical training at The New York Hospital in 1878. His interests in surgery and anatomy were cultivated by Dr. Henry Sands, an attending surgeon at The New York Hospital. Halsted pursued most of his surgical training in Europe but returned to New York in 1880, and was appointed Visiting Surgeon at The New York Hospital in 1883.

The third and present hospital building opened in 1932 on the upper east side of Manhattan. In 1931, the Medical Board of the New York Hospital decided that all the clinical services should have residencies. A new era began with the appointment of George J. Heuer as Professor of Surgery. Heuer brought with him a wealth of experience from his service in World War I, including expertise in neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, and general surgery. After Heuer completed his training with Halsted, he established this country's second modern surgical training program outside of Johns Hopkins. To The New York Hospital Heuer brought the Halstedian philosophy to "produce not only surgeons, but surgeons of the highest type...who will stimulate the first youths of our country to study surgery and to elevate the energies and their lives to raising the standards of surgical service."

Many outstanding surgeons practiced under the leadership of Dr. Heuer, including Bronson Ray and Victor Marshall, who went on to become the chiefs of the neurosurgery and urology divisions, respectively. Herbert Conway, a well known philanthropist and academic surgeon, became chief of the plastic surgical division. Conway trained many future leaders in plastic and reconstructive surgery, including Dr. Joseph Murray, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1990. Preston Wade became a leading trauma surgeon and pioneer in accident prevention. He treated many of the burn victims of the Hindenberg disaster and he also designed the Emergency Room at The New York Hospital, which became the prototype of those recommended by the American College of Surgeons.

Heuer retired in 1947 after training more than 100 surgeons. It was Heuer who was summoned to operate on the ailing Halsted when he developed cholangitis and gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Heuer said: "When I review my own professional life and its many satisfactions, the greatest are not the surgical operations I have performed, nor the thousands of patients that I have cured, but the successful young [surgeons] whose instruction and training I have directed."

After Heuer, Frank Glenn became the first Lewis Atterbury Stimson Professor of Surgery at The New York Hospital. Glenn initiated his training with Harvey Cushing and completed his residency with George Heuer at The New York Hospital. Glenn was internationally recognized as an expert in biliary and cardiovascular surgery, writing six books and 407 articles. The 1950s were marked by the development of cardiovascular surgery throughout the country, and New York Hospital kept pace with that technology. Similarly, organ transplantation was becoming an accepted medical development in the 1960s, and the first kidney transplant in New York was performed by Dr. Edward Goldsmith at The New York Hospital in 1963.

Frank Glenn retired in 1967 and was replaced by Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, who became the first Lewis Atterbury Professor of Surgery in 1967. Lillehei is regarded as the "father of heart surgery" because of many of his innovations that were crucial to the evolution of cardiac surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass. He also trained Norman Shumway and Christiaan Barnard, early pioneers of cardiac transplantation. Lillehei performed his first cardiac transplant in 1968 as well as the first inter-hospital six organ transplants in 1969.

Lillehei was succeeded by Dr. Paul Ebert who became the President of the American College of Surgeons. In 1975, Dr. G. Tom Shires became the next Lewis Atterbury Stimson Professor of Surgery. Shires, a pioneer in shock and trauma research, established the largest burn unit in the United States at The New York Hospital. He also served as President of the American College of Surgeons from 1981 to 1982. Dr. Shires was succeeded by Dr. John M. Daly in 1993.

Presently, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is undergoing a major modernization program. As the hospital has spanned American history, it has also paralleled surgical development in the United States. In 1976 the Hospital formed the first comprehensive Burn Center in the New York region – today one of the largest and busiest in the nation. In 1996, we created the first pancreas transplant program in the tri-state area. In 2004, we were the first in the tri-state areas to perform minimally invasive islet cell transplants to cure Type I diabetes. In 2005, the first side-to-side bowel sparing stricturplasty was performed in our hospital by Dr. Fabrizio Michelassi, who pioneered the procedure for patients with advanced Crohn's disease of the small bowel.Under the leadership of Dr. Fabrizio Michelassi, the current Lewis Atterbury Stimson Professor of Surgery, the Department of Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is poised to continue its leadership role well into the next century.

Historical information obtained from the Medical Archives of The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and excerpts reprinted from the article by I. Michael Leitman, MD, The Evolution of Surgery at The New York Hospital, Bull. N.Y. Academy of Medicine, Vol.67:475, 1991