Abraham Groves (September 8, 1847 – May 12, 1935) was a Canadian physician and surgeon in Fergus, Ontario, who is credited with performing the first appendectomy in North America, in 1883.

He is also recognized for performing Canada's first suprapubic lithotomy and for his early use of aseptic technique in surgery, possibly being the first person to use surgical gloves for infection control.

[4] Groves graduated in 1871, and after six months of training under a Toronto doctor,[5] he returned to Fergus where he set up a medical practice.

This would become his routine practice: the Dittrick Museum of Medical History holds one of Groves's surgical knives, manufactured in 1870, which shows wear from frequent boiling.

Recognizing that it would be dangerous to operate with his bare hands, Groves boiled his rubber riding gloves and wore them during the surgery.

[5] Groves was an early practitioner of many urologic surgeries, including prostatectomy, removal of the renal capsule, and surgical repair of the bladder and urethra.

[2][3][8] Abdominal surgery was rare at the time: Groves stated that "during my undergraduate course there was not, so far as I know, one abdomen opened in the Toronto General Hospital".

Groves gave a contradictory account of his appendectomy in a 1928 interview, claiming to have based his technique on papers by British surgeon Lawson Tait which were first published in 1890.

[2] During his career, he served as physician and surgeon for the Grand Trunk Railway and the Wellington County House of Industry and Refuge.

He was a member of the Masonic Order, and served on the Fergus school board and village council;[4] he was elected reeve in 1885, but could not take the position due to his post at the Wellington County House of Industry.