Hanaoka Seishū

Hanaoka Seishū
Hanaoka Seishū
Born	October 23, 1760 Hirayama, Naga District, Kii Province, (now Wakayama Prefecture), Japan
Died	November 21, 1835 (aged 75) Japan
Residence	Japan
Citizenship	Japan
Nationality	Japan
Fields	Medicine, surgery
Institutions	Japan
Alma mater	Kyoto, Japan
Academic advisors	Nangai Yoshimasu (1750-1813)
Known for	first to perform surgery using general anesthesia
Influences	Yoshio Kōsaku (1724-1800)Kenryu Yamato (1740-1780) Hanaoka Jikido
Influenced	Shutei Nakagawa (1773–1850) Gencho Homma (1804-1872)

Yoshio Kōsaku (1724-1800)Kenryu Yamato (1740-1780)

Shutei Nakagawa (1773–1850)

Hanaoka Seishū (華岡 青洲^?, October 23, 1760 – November 21, 1835) was a Japanese surgeon of the Edo period with a knowledge of Chinese herbal medicine, as well as Western surgical techniques he had learned through Rangaku (literally "Dutch learning", and by extension "Western learning"). Hanaoka is said to have been the first to perform surgery using general anesthesia.

Hanaoka studied medicine in Kyoto, and became a medical practitioner in Wakayama prefecture, located near Osaka, where he was born. Seishū Hanaoka learned traditional Japanese medicine as well as Dutch-imported European surgery. Due to the nation's self-imposed isolation policy of Sakoku, few foreign medical texts were permitted into Japan at that time. This limited the exposure of Hanaoka and other Japanese physicians to Western medical developments.

Perhaps the most notable Japanese surgeon of the Edo period, Hanaoka was famous for combining Dutch and Japanese surgery and introducing modern surgical techniques to Japan. Hanaoka successfully operated for hydrocele, anal fistula, and even performed certain kinds of plastic surgery. He was the first surgeon in the world who used the general anaesthesia in surgery and who dared to operate on cancers of the breast and oropharynx, to remove necrotic bone, and to perform amputations of the extremities in Japan.

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