Trepanning
Created | Updated Feb 19, 2006
Trepanning is a very early form of medical operation from pre-history.
It is a process where one or two holes are drilled or cut out of the patients skull in order to release evil spirits, Which they may have believed caused migraines and mental disoders. This supernatural belief although it may seem very primitive, was actually preformed quite well most of the time, we know this because archaeological evidence shows that the wounds in the skull from Trepanning were partially healed over by time of death which by standards of the time could be quite some years after the operation. This was usually preformed by a Shaman of some kind, probably using flint tools. The operation may not have been as painful as it sounds because once the scalp has been cut; the skull has no nerve cells. Although this is a supernatural belief and could be seen as not being particurly helpful to people in the short term, in the long term it must have encouraged people to take an active role in medical health.
Trepanning was taken up and developed by the Greeks, Hippocrates wrote about how to perform this operation, so I assume since his and Galen’s works were followed by medical students up to the late 1600s. It must be safe to assume that this procedure must have been still performed up until and beyond that point. I cant see any obvious advantages to Trepanning except for possibly the placebo affect.
It is a process where one or two holes are drilled or cut out of the patients skull in order to release evil spirits, Which they may have believed caused migraines and mental disoders. This supernatural belief although it may seem very primitive, was actually preformed quite well most of the time, we know this because archaeological evidence shows that the wounds in the skull from Trepanning were partially healed over by time of death which by standards of the time could be quite some years after the operation. This was usually preformed by a Shaman of some kind, probably using flint tools. The operation may not have been as painful as it sounds because once the scalp has been cut; the skull has no nerve cells. Although this is a supernatural belief and could be seen as not being particurly helpful to people in the short term, in the long term it must have encouraged people to take an active role in medical health.
Trepanning was taken up and developed by the Greeks, Hippocrates wrote about how to perform this operation, so I assume since his and Galen’s works were followed by medical students up to the late 1600s. It must be safe to assume that this procedure must have been still performed up until and beyond that point. I cant see any obvious advantages to Trepanning except for possibly the placebo affect.
