| Summary: | The Art of Surgery has a very long tradition and is one of the earliest treatments for serious injuries of diverse causes. Due to achievements in anesthesia and intensive care medicine in the second half of the nineteenth century, postoperative morbidity and mortality have been appreciably reduced. Operative techniques could be expanded and new operative therapies could be introduced. Although the last two-hundred years have brought about increasing specialization in medicine and operative specialties have developed in multiple areas, the operative spectrum of the visceral surgeon has remained rather broad and diverse. Numerous operative procedures are carried out in the entire gastroi tract as well as the body surface. Many of these are to treat diseases, while others are of help in the plastic reconstruction of organs and the body surface. Thanks to specialization, among the positive developments are shortened operation time and length of hospital stay, as well as reduced postoperative morbidity and mortality. The advances in minimal-invasive surgery and the progress in surgical instruments and suturing techniques are some origins of these positive developments. This article cannot cover all possible resections and reconstructions of the visceral surgeon, but will instead concentrate on two major sites. The operative treatment of inguinal hernias is one of the oldest operations known to humanity. Because hernias are one of the most common operations of all visceral surgical procedures, their surgical therapy shall be particularly highlighted here. But the plastic and reconstructive possibilities of the visceral surgeon are by no means limited to hernia repair. So this manuscript will further provide insight into the resection and reconstruction possibilities of the esophagus, one of the most challenging procedures in this field.
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