RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Blind alleys and dead ends: researching innovation in late 20th century surgery
JF Medical Humanities
JO J Med Humanit
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP medhum-2016-011176
DO 10.1136/medhum-2016-011176
A1 Harriet Palfreyman
A1 Roger L Kneebone
YR 2018
UL http://mh.bmj.com/content/early/2018/01/05/medhum-2016-011176.abstract
AB This article examines the fortunes of one particular surgical innovation in the treatment of gallstones in the late 20th century; the percutaneous cholecystolithotomy (PCCL). This was an experimental procedure which was trialled and developed in the early days of minimally invasive surgery and one which fairly rapidly fell out of favour. Using diverse research methods from textual analysis to oral history to re-enactment, the authors explore the rise and fall of the PCCL demonstrating that such apparent failures are as crucial a part of innovation histories as the triumphs and have much light to shed on the development of surgery more generally.