History of medicine: Trepanation and Amputation Before Anaesthesia

Posted by Lito Apostolakou Oct 6, 2009

It features in cave paintings, it is evident in prehistoric skulls, Hippocrates explains it, Galen elaborates on it and it was practiced from the Andes to Norway and beyond, from prehistory and until today: trepanation or trepanning is a procedure whereby a hole is drilled into the human skull to treat intracranal diseases.

The methods have of course changed since ancient times but the illustrations that survive of the procedure of trepanation from the Renaissance period onwards are valuable resources for the history of medicine. These were times before modern anaesthesia was invented and patients had to make do with traditional anaesthetics such as alcohol and opium.

The same was true for limb amputations. Surgeons had to be quick, patients had to be restrained and the risk of infection was high. It is noteworthy however that over half of the patients survived trepanation and the infection risk was low.

The illustrations and prints which are part of the Wellcome Images collection, held in Wellcome Library in London feature different surgical instruments used for amputations as well as representations of amputations. Some of them are not for the fainthearted.

On historical medical images resources see

• Online Historical Medical Images at Duke University Medical Center Library

• Historical Medical Images of Surgery at the Wellcome Library, London
• Vesalius and the Anatomical Illustration: Anatomy Images and Historical Illustrations, Wellcome Library

The Wellcome Collection is on 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE