The History of Surgery

The History of Surgery

Trepanation was one of the earliest forms of surgery and was common

practice in prehistoric times. It involved drilling a small hole in

the head to release evil spirits trapped inside the body that were

supposedly causing the patient ill health. Although skulls that have

survived from the prehistoric age show signs that some people survived

after trepanation, many people would have died after having this

operation from infection or even the pain of it. In the Middle Ages

and throughout the Renaissance cauterisation was used. This was when a

hot iron was used to seal the wound left after amputation. Amputations

were carried out using saws, which would have caused the patient great

pain. Also the medical instruments used at this time were not cleaned

properly so the chance of infection and the spread of disease was

high. Effective anaesthetics were not in wide use by surgeons before

1840 and the only other option that they had were to give the patient

alcohol or opium which would not ease the patients pain; if anything

it would worsen the patients health.

b) After 1840 the use of anaesthetics in surgery increased. At first

the number of deaths after and during surgery increased as surgeons

became more ambitious in the operations that they performed, but

anaesthetics did allow surgeons to learn more about the anatomy. The

increased use of anaesthetics also greatly reduced the pain that the

patients had to suffer. After anaesthetics had been introduced people

were still dying of infection, which resulted in scientists

questioning what caused it and how it could be prevented. After Louis

Pasteur had proved that g...

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...ics and antiseptics led to a new era in

medicine which resulted in surgery developing rapidly as saving

peoples lives through operations became a reality. However, before

this time the chance of patients surviving after an operation were a

lot slimmer due to the lack of knowledge about infection, pain and

bleeding.

Although surgery has always been a key feature in medicine throughout

history it has not always been the most important. Throughout ancient

medicine surgery was quite basic and no major developments were made

in this area. There were a number of factors more important than

surgery at the time. This continued through the Middle Ages and most

of the Renaissance. Surgery did not really become a significant factor

in medicine until the 1800s, which saw the introduction of both

anaesthetics and antiseptics.