Holes in the head: The remarkable skill of ancient Peru’s cranial surgeons
6/08/2018 07:00:00 PM Email
Even with a highly skilled neurosurgeon, the most effective anesthesia, and all the other advances of modern medicine, most of us would cringe at the thought of undergoing cranial surgery today.
More ancient skulls bearing evidence of trepanation - a telltale hole surgically cut into the cranium - have been
found in Peru than the combined number found in the rest of the world [Credit: University of Miami]
After all, who needs a hole in the head? Yet for thousands of years, trepanation -- the act of scraping, cutting, or drilling an opening into the cranium -- was practiced around the world, primarily to treat head trauma, but possibly to quell headaches, seizures and mental illnesses, or even to expel perceived demons.
But, according to a new study led by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine's David S. Kushner, M.D., clinical professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, trepanation was so expertly practiced in ancient Peru that the survival rate for the procedure during the Incan Empire was about twice that of the American Civil War -- when, more three centuries later, soldiers were trepanned presumably by better trained, educated and equipped surgeons.
Read more at
https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2018/06/holes-in-head-remarkable-skill-of.html#IDQLoF7U6f7eE2v6.99
