Two pioneers of surgery.

This DVD is a tribute to two distinguished surgeons. During the 20th century these two pioneers made significant contributions to surgery - Mr. Cecil Joll and Professor Josep Trueta were surgeons at the Royal Bucks Hospital, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. In 1943, Dr. Albert Rinsler with the assistance of his brother, filmed these two surgeons operating at the hospital. He was then a pre-clinical medical student, and his brother Dr. Michael Rinsler, a schoolboy. At a chance meeting in 1992, Professor Harold Ellis, Emeritus Professor of Surgery, made a remark to Dr. Rinsler, and as a result, measures were taken for the preservation of the fifty year old film. UCL Images then incorporated the original 8mm film into a documentary film. Rinsler introduces the documentary by telling the story of how the film came to be shot, and then also narrates a brief history of Royal Bucks Hospital. Two retired consultants, Dr. Edith Gilchrist and Mr. Barry Fearn, the former an anaesthetist, the latter an orthopaedic surgeon, provide biographical commentaries to Rinsler's films. Gilchrist worked with Joll as anaesthetist, and Fearn with Trueta as a senior house officer. We see Joll perform a thyroidectomy and a skin tissue graft, while Trueta is shown performing a leg amputation.