Surgery, branch of medicine that is concerned with the treatment of injuries, diseases, and other disorders by manual and instrumental means. Surgery involves the management of acute injuries and illnesses as differentiated from chronic, slowly progressing diseases, except when patients with the latter type of disease must be operated upon.
Inflammation is the body's immune system's response to an irritant. The irritant might be a germ, but it could also be a foreign object, such as a splinter in your finger.