The History of Pancreatic Surgery

Abstract

“We can measure the attainments of the past but we can never measure the inevitable advances of the future.” Thus Allen Whipple in his book The Evolution of Surgery in the United States. That the progress achieved to date is a quantifiable entity, whereas our future potential is simply unknowable, is all too true. Not only this, but it is quite curious to note that we surgeons — markedly more so than any other category of medical practitioner — have throughout history always labored under the impression of having attained all that is possible to attain, thereby ruling out prospects of future improvements.