Overview of modern surgery

Although it is sometimes difficult to determine when a medical procedure is considered surgery,a medical treatment that involves a cutting of a patient's live tissue (e.g., hair and nails are dead tissue) is usually considered surgery of some sort. A medical procedure involving a drilling of live tissue in a body would often be considered surgery, but mere piercing of a body is not necessarily surgery since piercing is often done for taking samples or draining fluids from or injecting materials into the body, or setting up intravenous drip, and usually does not require suturing to close the pierced opening. Even if a medical procedure or treatment does not include cutting or drilling of live tissue in a body, it may be considered surgery, if it involves common surgical procedure or a setting, such as use of an operating room or table in a hospital, anesthesia, ntiseptic conditions, typical surgical instruments, and suturing or stapling. Surgery is considered an invasive procedure. Examples of surgery without cutting the body may include debridement or closing (suturing or stapling) an open wound or applying skin grafts if done under typical surgical conditions. Many types of more complicated or involved surgery are obviously considered surgery, since they involve common surgical procedure or setting as mentioned above. A medical procedure may be surgery even if not all of the typical surgical conditions or procedures mentioned above are used.