Image courtesy of Dr. Randall Wolf
UPDATED: This Latin aphorism is at the core of Medicine and Surgery. It means "Above all, do no harm". Another translation would be "First, do no harm". The works of Hippocrates mentions the concept in his book Epidemics , and it has been presented in one way or another trough the ages. Thomas Sydenham (1624 - 1689), an English physician, is probably the first one to use it in an English publication, although his Latin phrase was "Primum est ut, non nocere". The first use of the modern phrasing "Primum Non Nocere" was by Lewis Atterbury Stimson (1844 - 1917), an American surgeon in 1879.
It seems almost counterintuitive that surgery would attempt to do no harm, but this is what moves innovation. From sharper needles that require less force to penetrate, and sharper scalpels that cause less trauma to tissues, to surgical staplers and minimally invasive techniques that attempt to reduce the size of the incision and the overall damage to the tissues.
The design of new surgical devices and new surgical techniques should always attempt to answer to this most important rule of surgery: "Primum Non Nocere".
As a point of interest, the Latin term [nocere] is the basis for the medical term [noxa] means "injury", "harm", or damage", this being the root for the term [noxious]
Sources
1. "Origin and Uses of Primum Non Nocere — Above All, Do No Harm!" Smith, CM J Clin Pharmacol 2005 45 (4): 371–377
2. "On abdominal drainage of adherent portions of ovarian cysts as a substitute for completed ovariotomy" Stimson LA Am J Med Sci 1879;78:88-100.