History of hepatic surgery.

This article describes the development of hepatic surgery from old anecdotes to spectacular progress achieved during the last 25 years. The door to this evolution was opened by anatomists who paved the way for a few courageous hepatic surgeons, who performed pioneering work between 1960 to 1980. Then, hepatic surgery and transplantation became widely accepted for the treatment of many diseases. Surgery on the liver has become safer with low postoperative mortality as a result of the creation of centers of excellence offering multidisciplinary expertise and technical innovation. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.