What is the significance of surgery in the past on surgery today?

Surgery is probably no longer the most feared medical procedure. Many of us will
go under the surgeon’s knife at some point in our lives. We have come to
think of surgery as a safe, painless and reliable method to cure us from
illness, but this was not always the case. With no pain control and the risk of
infection, surgery used to be painful, horrific and dangerous in roughly equal
measure and many people died on the operating table. It was usually the last
resort for both patient and practitioner. Surgery is a branch of medicine that
deals with the physical manipulation of anatomical structures to diagnose or
cure an ailment. Since the human race have ever tried to make and utilise
tools, they have adapted these towards developing surgical techniques.
Throughout my essay you'll see the transformation between the eras of
medicine, each seemingly more advanced than the last one. However until
the 18th century surgeons were unable to prevail over the three principal
obstacles that had hindered its development from its birth - Pain, Bleeding,
Infection. Advances in these fields would turn the risky unfavourable prowess
of medicine into a professional scientific field allowing the treatment of many
ailments and conditions.
Early humans
For a large part of human prehistory, people around the world practised
trepanation: a rudimentary surgical procedure that involves forming a hole in
the skull of a living person by either drilling, cutting or scraping away layers of
bone with a sharp implement exposing the inner membrane called the Dura
Matter. It was practised as early as the Neolithic period, for reasons that
remain a mystery. There are many theories as to why they may have
practised. The only thing we know for sure is that some patients survived the
procedure, and sometimes even had more than one performed. Later, the
Egyptians practised trephining in an plot to heal migraines - the idea was to
‘let out’ the illness/demons that was causing the headaches. In modern terms
trepanation is used for relief of epidural and subdural haematoma and in rare
instances used in cosmetic procedures.
Setting Bones/Fractures
We take for granted the fact that our fractures can be healed. Contrasting to the
common belief that this a rather modern advancement, evidence exists
suggesting setting and splinting have been found in the archeological record.
The indigenous people of Mexico the Aztecs used to put fir branches in the
marrow of the bones helping to splint extend and adjust the bones. Modern
medicine has adopted a technique similar to this in the 20th century known as
medullary fixation.
Bloodletting
 Hirudo medicinalis. Leeches for bloodletting

Bloodletting is one of the oldest medical practices, it has been practised by many civilizations
including Mesopotamians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Mayans, and the Aztecs. In Greece,
bloodletting was in use around the time of Hippocrates, a renowned greek scholar in human
physiology who mentions bloodletting but in general relied on dietary techniques. Diseases were
thought to be carried in the blood of organisms so letting out the bodily fluid would mean that there
would be an absence of diseases. This goes down to an ancient medicinal thought known as the
four humours

· Go through the ages in chronological order

· Prehistory
· Egyptians
· Mesopotamians
· Babylonians
· Greek
· Roman
· Chinese
· Indian
· Islamic
· Middle ages
· Modern Era