The hardest part of becoming a surgeon involves the extreme, all-consuming mental, physical, and emotional demands, characterized by relentless long hours during intense residency, the pressure of life-and-death decisions, managing burnout, balancing an all-consuming lifestyle with personal life, and the constant need for perfection in a high-stakes, unforgiving field. It's a marathon of intense study, physical stamina, and emotional resilience required to master complex technical skills while handling significant responsibility and patient outcomes.
The fact that patients' lives are often reliant on surgeons puts an enormous amount of pressure on those who work in this field. Many surgeons will also experience a patient dying during or after a surgery at least once in their careers, which can be extremely psychologically challenging for many people.
What is the hardest surgeon to be? It's difficult to become any type of surgeon, but if you want to equate “longest” with “hardest,” then the answer is neurological surgery, which has a seven-year residency—the longest of all postgraduate surgical residencies. It is (often) brain surgery, after all.
Robert Liston is known as the one-time fastest surgeon in London, the first to use anaesthetic, and for conducting a surgery that had a 300% mortality rate.
As of 2025, the average age of a surgeon in the United States is approximately 54.4 years, indicating a steady increase over the years. Notably, around 25.6% of active medical practitioners are aged 65 or older, underscoring a significant demographic shift within the healthcare workforce.
Akrit Pran Jaswal was born on April 23, 1993, in Nurpur, Himachal Pradesh. He became an internet sensation because of his extraordinary talents. At just 7 years old, Jaswal performed surgery on an 8-year-old burn victim.
Enter Robert Liston — one of the fastest surgeons in history. He could perform an amputation in under 30 seconds. ⏱️ His famous line to students holding stopwatches: “Time me, gentlemen, time me!”
1. Neurosurgery. Neurosurgeons earn an average of $763,908 per year, which is 219% higher than the national median salary of physicians in the U.S. They perform complex surgeries on the brain, spinal cord, and nerves. Training includes at least a seven-year residency, making it one of the most demanding specialties.
For example, oral and maxillofacial surgery and plastic surgery are both considered among the rarest specialties in medicine. In the case of oral and maxillofacial surgery, professionals are trained in both dentistry and surgery, which makes it an even rarer specialty.
Trauma surgeons (also called critical care and acute care surgeons) specialize in performing emergency surgeries on people who've had a critical injury or illness. Trauma surgery requires extensive knowledge of surgical procedures and how to manage different types of injuries.
Long hours, night shifts, and being on call can harm a surgeon's personal life. Some specialties, like trauma or cardiothoracic surgery, are even harder. They require quick decisions and are high-stakes, making work-life balance even more challenging.
Both the t-test and the Mann-Whitney test support the notion of a surgical personality, which varies from the 'average' personality in that surgeons score significantly higher in agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness.
What are the Challenges of Being a Doctor?
About 85% of physicians are married, according to an online survey, and these doctors often marry other doctors or other health professionals.
Robert Liston is famous for performing the only operation with a 300 percent mortality rate. In the days before anesthesia, surgeons had to get creative with their surgeries in an attempt to save lives while minimizing a patient's pain.
In general, minimally invasive surgery is linked to less pain, a shorter hospital stay and fewer complications. Laparoscopy is surgery done through one or more small cuts, called incisions, using small tubes and tiny cameras and surgical tools.
The 2001 separation of Ganga and Jamuna Shrestha remains a defining moment in surgical history—103 hours of precision, endurance, and innovation that pushed the limits of what medicine could achieve.
The medical name for the procedure is cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) or CRS/HIPEC.
Disc surgeries of the spine have a failure rate greater than 50%. 10% of patients experience a worsening of symptoms after surgical intervention.
In many aspects, minimally invasive surgery is safer than traditional open surgery.
20 Most Innovative Surgeons Alive Today
Paediatrician. Paediatricians manage medical conditions affecting infants, children and young people. You'll see a wide range of patients, from babies through to teenagers.
Sushruta is the father of surgery. If the history of science is traced back to its origin, it probably starts from an unmarked era of ancient time.