ShortCut: Trepanning and Venesection

In this article type on my website, I share some information from books I have read time to time. In this particular article, I wanted to write about intriguing facts I have learned, under the subject of medicine throughout history from The History of Medicine by Mark Jackson, including processes thought ameliorating body and mind conditions in severe diseases - trepanning and venesection. In that regard, people fervently believed that trepanning and venesection would aid them without even considering unbearable pain caused by these processes after treatment subsequently. To better comprehend how struggling these processes were, continue to read the following paragraphs.

"Archeological evidence suggests that trepanning(or trephining), which involved drilling holes in the skull, was used, as in some indigenous South American cultures, to treat fractures. It may also have been employed in the treatment of epilepsy and mental illness. In addition, a particular manoeuvre used to reduce a dislocated shoulder has been attributed to Hippocrates, who is also credited with the invention of the Hippocratic bench, a device that applied traction to promote the healing of broken bones and correct curvature of the spine⁽¹⁾."

Although we know venesection as the act of drawing or removing blood from the circulatory system through a cut (incision) or puncture for the purpose of analysis, blood donations or treatment for blood disorders, in Vesalius's time, it was performed for only blood-letting without discerning its detrimental effects. "From the late 1530s, Vesalius produced a number of illustrated and educational texts for medical students, including depictions of anatomical structure, commentaries on the works of Galen and al-Rāzī, and discussions of the theory and method of venesection (blood-letting)⁽²⁾."

References

⁽¹⁾ Jackson, Mark. "Balance and flow: the ancient world." The History of Medicine.. London: Qneworld Publications, 2016. 21. Print.

⁽²⁾ Jackson, Mark. "Balance and flow: the ancient world." The History of Medicine.. London: Qneworld Publications, 2016. 56. Print.

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