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Article ID: CBB408132119

Surgery, Success, and the Role of the Patient in Cleft Palate Operations, circa 1800–1930 (2022)

Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 113
Issue: 1
Pages: 22-44

DOI: 10.1086/718302

URI: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/718302

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Failure in science, technology, and medicine Speech Human body Physicians; doctors Surgery 19th century 20th century, early 19th century 20th century, early North America Europe

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, scientific and technological developments made surgery safer, more reliable, and, with the corresponding increase in experimentation permitted, more exploratory and successful than ever before. The age of the heroic surgeon, however, obscured procedures that relied on the patient’s cooperation for a final, positive outcome. This essay focuses on the debates surrounding cleft palate surgery in Britain, Europe, and North America between about 1800 and 1930, where the constancy of failure dogged the surgeon, even with improved operative surroundings. Although an anatomical correction could eventually be secured by surgery, without the patient’s participation in learning “normal” speech, the ultimate result was unsuccessful. Patient responsibility and self-control became, therefore, the key to success. By exploring what this meant for patients, their families, and surgeons, a new way of thinking about surgical outcomes, even during a period of increasing confidence in surgery, can be posited.

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