Surgery

What was the first documented surgical procedure? When did it occur? Who performed it?

Skulls showing evidence of trepannation, or making a hole in the top of the head, date back over 10,000 years. They show signs of healing of the bone, so the patient apparently survived the procedure for a good while.

Here’s the link
http://www.neurosurgery.org/cybermuseum/pre20th/treph/trephination.html

Ahhh, Qadgop again. What do YOU know about surgery?

I’ll spare the ‘duck and run’ as you lance my boils and do an acl reconstruction :slight_smile:

OW! I can still feel that! OW! Quit it, that’s not funny! OW!

Trephination is certainly the oldest surgery for which we have evidence; however, the first written reference to surgery appears (from my search) to be in the Code of Hammurabi. Certain lines set fees for physicians and punishments for malpractice:

“If a physician make a large incision with an operating knife and cure it, or if he open a tumor (over the eye) with an operating knife, and saves the eye, he shall receive ten shekels in money.”
“If a physician make a large incision with the operating knife, and kill him, or open a tumor with the operating knife, and cut out the eye, his hands shall be cut off.”