Hugh Morriston Davies: first dissection lobectomy in 1912

Hugh Morriston Davies (1879-1965), long before anybody else, performed the first anatomic dissection lobectomy for a tumor of the lung in 1912. By replacing the hilar mass-ligation-suture technique, he was decades ahead of his time, and had his patient not died 8 days after the operation, he would have preceded Evarts Graham's first lung resection for cancer by 21 years! An all-around chest physician and surgeon in one, he had introduced chest radiography and positive-pressure intratracheal anesthesia the year before, thus making the diagnosis and operation of this lung cancer possible. He concluded that lung cancer was accessible to surgical removal on condition of an early diagnosis. By destiny a surgeon as well as a physician, Morriston Davies was probably the earliest advocate of interdisciplinary teamwork in thoracic medicine.