Susrutha (about 400 B.C) - also spelt Susruta or Sushrutha - is an important figure in the history of surgery. He lived and taught and practiced his art on the banks of the Ganges in the area that corresponds to the prensent day city of Benares in North-West India. Because of his seminal and numerous contributions to the science and art of Surgery he is also known by the title "Father of Surgery." Much of what is known about this inventive surgeon is contained in a series of volumes he authored, which are collectively known as the Susrutha Samhita. The "Samhita" has writings that date as late as 600 AD, and some scholars believe that there were contributions and additions to his teachings from generations of his students and disciples. Susrutha is also the father of Plastic surgery since his technique of forehead flap rhinoplasty (repairing the disfigured nose with a flap of skin from the forehead) is practiced almost unchanged in technique to this day. The Susrutha Samhita contains the first known description of several operations, including the uniting of bowel, the removal of the prostate gland, the removal of cataract lenses and the draining of abscesses. Susrutha was also the first surgeon to advocate the practice of operations on inanimate objects such as watermelons, clay plots and reeds; thus predating the modern practice of the surgical workshop by hundreds of years.
REF: medicine, history of. (2005). Encyclopędia Britannica.